Virtual SCSI is based on a client and server relationship. The Virtual I/O Server owns the physical resources and acts as server, or target, device. Physical adapters with attached disks on the Virtual I/O Server partition may be shared by one or more partitions. These partitions contain a virtual SCSI client adapter that sees these virtual devices as standard SCSI compliant devices and LUNs.
Physical disks presented to the Virtual I/O Server can be assigned to a client partition in a number of different ways using Virtual SCSI :
Logical Volume based Virtual Disk
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File Base Virtual Disk
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Whole Disk/LUN based Virtual Disk
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Procedure to assign a disk from VIO server to Client
On HMC create and connect Virtual SCSI Adatper devices as below steps and after it we will have a server-client mapping like in Figure 1 as below
| 1. Create the Virtual SCSI server adapterHMC -> VIO Server (VIOS1) -> DLPAR -> Virtual Adapters -> Action -> Create -> SCISI adapterI have Filled up the following parameters as per Figure 1
Adapter : 3 Checked the box for “This adapter is required for partition activation“Server Partition : VIOS1( I selected VIOS1 server) Server Adapter ID : 12 ( This is the slot C12 and it is associated with Client 1 ( webmanual01) We need to update same for Client 2 and Client 3 with slot 13 and 14 |
| 2. Modify the profile of VOI server (VIOS1) accordingly for next reboot . We can be updated it by : Configuration -> Managed Profile -> Select the Profile -> Action Edit -> Virtual Adapters -> Action -> Create -> SCISI adapterI have Filled up the following parameters as per Figure 1
Adapter : 12 Server Adapter ID : 3 ( This is the slot C12 and it is associated with Client 1 ( webmanual01) We need to update same for Client 2 and Client 3 with slot 13 and 14 and Client partition slot 3 |
| 3. Create the Virtual SCSI client adapter HMC -> VIO Client (webmanual01) -> DLPAR -> Virtual Adapters-> Action -> Create -> SCISI adapterI have Filled up the following parameters as per Figure 1
Adapter : 12 Server Adapter ID : 3( This is the slot C12 and it is associated with Client 1 ( webmanual01) We need to update same for Client 2 and Client 3 with Server slot 13 and 14 and Client partition slot 3 |
| 4. Modify the profile accordingly for next reboot . We can be updated it by : Configuration -> Managed Profile -> Select the Profile -> Action Edit -> Virtual Adapters -> Action -> Create -> SCISI adapterI have Filled up the following parameters as per Figure 1
Adapter : 3 Checked the box for “This adapter is required for partition activation“Server Partition : VIOS1( I selected VIOS1 server) Server Adapter ID : 12 ( This is the slot C12 and it is associated with Client 1 ( webmanual01) We need to update same for Client 2 and Client 3 with slot 13 and 14 |
| 5. Run cfgdev on VIO server and it will bring up vhostX on VIO server in our example it is vhost0, vhost1 and vhost2 |
| 6. Run cfgmgr on VIO client webmanual01 and it will bring up vscsiX on client in our example it is vscsi0,vscsi1 and vscsi2 |
Figure 1
For Dual VIO set perform Step 1 to Step 5 on VIOS2 . In Figure 1 , we have created three Virtual SCSI adapter vhost0 , vhost1 and vhost3 with slot C12 , C13 and C14 for Client 1 , Client 2 and Client 3 respectively. Here Client 1 = webmanual01 , Client 2 = webmanual02 and Client 3 = webmanual03.
Now checking adapter mappings between VIO server and client:
On vio VIOS1:
To display all I/O slots that are not hot-pluggable but can have DLPAR operations performed on them, type:
lsdev -slots
The system displays a message similar to the following:
| U787A.001.DNZ00Y1-P1-C1 Logical I/O Slot pci4 sisscsia0 U787A.001.DNZ00Y1-P1-T5 Logical I/O Slot pci3 ent0 ent1 U9133.55A.10DFD8C-V2-C12 Virtual I/O Slot vhost0 U9133.55A.10DFD8C-V2-C13 Virtual I/O Slot vhost1 U9133.55A.10DFD8C-V2-C14 Virtual I/O Slot vhost2 |
Below command will give vhostX and corresponding slot now
| padmin@VIOS1 : lsdev -dev vhost0 -vpd vhost0 U9133.55A.062509H-V2-C12 Virtual SCSI Server Adapter |
On client webmanual01:
| root@webmanual01: /root # lscfg -vpl vscsi0 … vscsi0 U8204.E8A.0680E82-V4-C12-T1 Virtual SCSI Client Adapter |
On both vio and client, in the location path th slot CX (here C12) is identical means client adapter vscsi0 is connected server adapter vhost0
Disk assignments:
Using physical disks:
| mkvdev -vdev hdisk3 -vadapter vhost0 -dev webmanual01_disk |
The above command mapping hdisk3 to vhosto and now client server can access hisk3 through vscsi0. Note the hdisk number might be changed on client.
Using logical volumes:
Create a Storage Pool
| mksp myvg_vios hdisk3 |
List the VG
| lsvg |
Creating lv to mapped to client
| mklv -lv lv_client myvg_vios 10G |
Lists lvs under a vg
| lsvg -lv myvg_vios |
Now map the LV to client server
| mkvdev -vdev lv_client -vadapter vhost1 -dev webmanual02_lv |
The above command will map lv_client to vhosto and now client server can access lv_client through vscsi0.
Using file backed storage pool
Create a Storage Pool
| mksp my_pool hdik3 |
Creates a file backed storage pool in the storage pool .
| mksp -fb my_fb -sp my_pool -size 20G |
it wil look like an lv, and a fs will be created automatically as well
List the storage pool
| lssp |
Check the file by using command
| #mount |
To create a file backed device and assigns it to the given vhost
| mkbdsp -sp fb_testvg -bd my_fb -vadapter vhost2 -tn client_sp 10G |
Now map the file to client server
| mkvdev -vdev fb_testvg -vadapter vhost2 -dev webmanual03_fb |
Figure 2
On Dual VIOS setup Configuration will be like Figure 3 as below
Figure 3
Some other Virtual SCSI useful commands
To Remove an assignment to the client
rmvdev -vdev
To Remove the given file storage pool
rmsp
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