Re: With SAN should you still use internal disk for vios?

Have to agree with Steve that it's largely personal preference.

The cost savings can be important, but with Power10 and the limited number of PCIe slots, more will move to SAN Boot. You can't afford to dedicate a slot to booting just VIOS from internal disk on single socket Power10 machines.

Another thing I like about SAN Boot, though, is the ability to flash copy the VIOS boot disk to make the second VIO server, (two birds, one stone etc.) But additionally when you are going to upgrade VIOS, flash copy first so you have a simple and FAST go-back if needed.

Certainly the space needed for VIOS has zero impact on SAN sizing so not a factor there.

- DrF

On 8/22/2022 7:40 AM, Rob Berendt wrote:

IDK if I already asked this question but: With SAN should you still use internal disk for vios?

The winds of change are coming. When replacing our 9009-42A and our 8286-41A (same rack) we may go with SAN.

BP is pushing for internal disk to continue to host VIOS. With all the nightmares I had getting disk replaced for VIOS I find this rather disconcerting. Why would I get this recommendation?

DSPASPBRM
9009
--Auxiliary storage pools-- Over- ----- ASP Media -----
Name Number Type flow Mirror Size Avail %Used
*SYSTEM 00001 *SYSBAS No No 25605 G 4053 G 84.1

8286
--Auxiliary storage pools-- Over- ----- ASP Media -----
Name Number Type flow Mirror Size Avail %Used
*SYSTEM 00001 *SYSBAS No No 5957 G 4202 G 29.4
*NONE 00002 *SYSBAS No No 6919 G 1778 G 74.3



Related thread from earlier this year:
https://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l/202205/msg00262.html


Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1
Group Dekko
Dept 1600
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