The Virtual I/O Server is part of the IBM System p5 Advanced Power Virtualization hardware feature. Virtual I/O Server allows sharing of physical resources between LPARs including virtual SCSI and virtual networking. This allows more efficient utilization of physical resources through sharing between LPARs and facilitates server consolidation.
This is a logical partition (LPAR) on a pSeries machine controlled by the HMC or IVM that owns hardware adapters like SCSI disks, Fibre-Channel disks, Ethernet or CD/DVD optical devices but allows other LPARs to access them or a part of them. This allows the device to be shared. The LPAR with the resources is called the VIO Server and the other LPARs using it are called VIO Clients. For example, instead of each LPAR having a SCSI adapter and SCSI disk to boot from they can shared one disk on the VIO Server. This reduces costs but eliminating adapters, adapter slots and disks. This Client:Server access is implemented over memory within the machine for speed.
This allows a single machine to run multiple operating system (OS) images at the same time but each is isolated from the others. POWER4 based machines started this in 2001 by allowing many Logical Partitions (LPAR) to run on the same machine using but each using different CPUs, different memory sections and different PCI adapter slots. Next came with POWER4, the ability to dynamically change the CPU, memory and PCI adapters slots with the OS running. With the introduction of POWER5 in 2005, further Virtualization items have been added:
Operating system versions supported
AIX 5.2, AIX 5.3, and AIX 6.1
IBM i 5.3, IBM i 5.4, IBM i 6.1
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11
Hardware platforms supported
==> The SEA feature of the VIO Server provides a bridge between the internal virtual network(s) and a physical network.
==>The Virtual I/O support provides storage to multiple clients partitions as virtual SCSI devices.
The storage can be backed by locally attached
SCSI drives or SAN-attached storage. Both features allow multiple client partitions to share the physical adapters – Ethernet
network adapters, SCSI adapters connected to local disks or Fibre Channel adapters attached to SAN storage
This is a logical partition (LPAR) on a pSeries machine controlled by the HMC or IVM that owns hardware adapters like SCSI disks, Fibre-Channel disks, Ethernet or CD/DVD optical devices but allows other LPARs to access them or a part of them. This allows the device to be shared. The LPAR with the resources is called the VIO Server and the other LPARs using it are called VIO Clients. For example, instead of each LPAR having a SCSI adapter and SCSI disk to boot from they can shared one disk on the VIO Server. This reduces costs but eliminating adapters, adapter slots and disks. This Client:Server access is implemented over memory within the machine for speed.
This allows a single machine to run multiple operating system (OS) images at the same time but each is isolated from the others. POWER4 based machines started this in 2001 by allowing many Logical Partitions (LPAR) to run on the same machine using but each using different CPUs, different memory sections and different PCI adapter slots. Next came with POWER4, the ability to dynamically change the CPU, memory and PCI adapters slots with the OS running. With the introduction of POWER5 in 2005, further Virtualization items have been added:
- Less than a whole CPU can be allocated to a LPAR
- The LPARs sharing CPUs can be setup to allow automatic load balancing (in milliseconds)
- The sharing of disks, networks, optical devices (CD/DVD) using a VIO Server
Highlights
- Consolidate diverse sets of applications built for multiple operating systems on a single server: AIX, IBM i, and Linux.
- Virtualize processor, memory, and I/O resources to increase asset utilization and reduce infrastructure costs.
- Dynamically adjust server capability to meet changing workload demands.
- Move running workloads between servers to maximize availability and avoid planned downtime.
Operating system versions supported
AIX 5.2, AIX 5.3, and AIX 6.1
Hardware platforms supported
IBM Power Systems with POWER5 and POWER6 processors
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The VIO Server provides two capabilities – Shared Ethernet Adapter (SEA) support and Virtual I/O support.
==> The SEA feature of the VIO Server provides a bridge between the internal virtual network(s) and a physical network.
==>The Virtual I/O support provides storage to multiple clients partitions as virtual SCSI devices.
The storage can be backed by locally attached
SCSI drives or SAN-attached storage. Both features allow multiple client partitions to share the physical adapters – Ethernet
network adapters, SCSI adapters connected to local disks or Fibre Channel adapters attached to SAN storage
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