Re: [very long] Moving from physical FC adapter to VIOS (was: Re: VTLs and backup time) -- MIDRANGE-L

At the moment since we are not using VIOS, we replicate all all the LUNs
from production to DR including the IPL source volumes.

On IPL of the DR instance we have scripts or configurations I think, that
look at the serial number of the Power server it's running on and then sets
either a primary or secondary network configuration to account for the
different IP addresses and subnets in the DR site.

Not sure how it's done but the DR LPAR sees its LUNs okay since it's define
in the HMC.

What I think you are saying is, because you have VIOS the actual
configuration of the adapters is no longer set in the HMC but in VIOS (the
HMC only knows about the physical cards. Since the VIOS configuration is
specific to the actual server configuration etc. then we need a separate
VIOS configuration for each Power server. But all the other data on the SAN
such as IPL source, LUNS for the data etc. are replicated between the two
data centres.

So during IPL the bootstrap code looks first at the VIOS configuration to
know what adapters it has (physical or virtual) before branching to the OS
code? Or something like that?

So using my mainframe background VIOS is sort of like a cutdown version of
PR/SM on Z boxes?

On Tue, Aug 30, 2022 at 10:05 PM Marc Rauzier <marc.rauzier@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Le 30/08/2022 à 09:35, Laurence Chiu a écrit :

Exactly.

But that raises an interesting point. Everything is on the SAN and the

LUNs

are all replicated from production to DR. So in DR we can spin up the DR
instance off the replicated LUNs and with only some minor configuration
changes during startup to alter the host IP addresses to be in the DR
server network subnet it all comes up.

Now if the VIOS is on the SAN what would happen when that LUN was
replicated to the DR site and that replicated LUN was defined as the load
source? Or is the VIO configuration separate from the load source?

VIOS disks retain AIX operating system and VIOS setup. They are
completely distinct than client partitions volumes. Even if they reside
on your external storage box, they are distinct volumes. And, on top of
that, in your DR setup, VIOS residing on the DR side is *not* used as DR
for VIOS residing on the production side. VIOS are closely tighted to
the server hardware and are not replicated. You can consider them as an
extension of the server's firmware (indeed, they are part of PowerVM
solution just like the server's hypervisor PHYP). So, in your target
setup with VIOS, you will have dual (for local redundancy) VIOS on each
server. And all the 4 VIOS must be up and running, updated, backed up,
maintained, just like production partitions. VIOS must be running for
the client partitions to work.

On Tue, Aug 30, 2022 at 3:53 AM Rob Berendt <rob@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Especially since the OP is already using SAN

Rob Berendt
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-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of
Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis
Sent: Monday, August 29, 2022 11:38 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <

midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>;

Marco Facchinetti <marco.facchinetti@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [very long] Moving from physical FC adapter to VIOS (was:

Re:

VTLs and backup time)

CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not
click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know
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On 8/29/2022 11:25 AM, Marco Facchinetti wrote:

The biggest debate will be internal or external disks for your IBM i.

Ahh yes, however when presented the list of capabilities provided by SAN
that internal disk will never do, the majority of my customers go SAN.

Internal disk DOES have it's place but that place is shrinking daily!

- DrF

--
IBM Champion for Power Systems

www.iInTheCloud.com - Commercial IBM i and Power System Hosting
www.iDevCloud.com - Personal IBM i Hosting
www.Frankeni.com - IBM i and Power Systems Consulting.
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