Veritas InfoScale™ 7.4.1 Virtualization Guide - AIX

Last Published:
Product(s): InfoScale & Storage Foundation (7.4.1)
Platform: AIX
  1. Section I. Overview
    1. Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions in AIX PowerVM virtual environments
      1.  
        Overview of the Veritas InfoScale Products Virtualization Guide
      2.  
        About the AIX PowerVM virtualization technology
      3. About Veritas InfoScale products support for the AIX PowerVM environment
        1.  
          About IBM LPARs with N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV)
      4.  
        About Veritas Extension for Oracle Disk Manager
      5.  
        Virtualization use cases addressed by Veritas InfoScale products
  2. Section II. Implementation
    1. Setting up Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions in AIX PowerVM virtual environments
      1. Supported configurations for Virtual I/O servers (VIOS) on AIX
        1.  
          Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the logical partition (LPAR)
        2.  
          Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the Virtual I/O server (VIOS)
        3.  
          Veritas InfoScale products in the logical partition (LPAR)
        4.  
          Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability in the logical partition (LPAR)
        5.  
          Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the Virtual I/O server (VIOS) and logical partition (LPAR)
        6.  
          Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the Virtual I/O server (VIOS) and Veritas InfoScale products in the logical partition (LPAR)
        7.  
          Cluster Server in the logical partition (LPAR)
        8.  
          Cluster Server in the management LPAR
        9.  
          Cluster Server in a cluster across logical partitions (LPARs) and physical machines
      2.  
        Support for N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) in IBM Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) environments
      3.  
        About setting up logical partitions (LPARs) with Veritas InfoScale products
      4.  
        Configuring IBM PowerVM LPAR guest for disaster recovery
      5. Installing and configuring Storage Foundation and High Availability (SFHA) Solutions in the logical partition (LPAR)
        1.  
          Impact of over-provisioning on Storage Foundation and High Availability
        2. About SmartIO in the AIX virtualized environment
          1.  
            Performing LPM in the SmartIO environment
      6.  
        Installing and configuring storage solutions in the Virtual I/O server (VIOS)
      7. Installing and configuring Cluster Server for logical partition and application availability
        1.  
          How Cluster Server (VCS) manages logical partitions (LPARs)
      8.  
        Enabling Veritas Extension for ODM file access from WPAR with VxFS
  3. Section III. Use cases for AIX PowerVM virtual environments
    1. Application to spindle visibility
      1.  
        About application to spindle visibility using
      2.  
        About discovering LPAR and VIO in Veritas InfoScale Operations Manager
      3.  
        About LPAR storage correlation supported in Veritas InfoScale Operations Manager
      4.  
        Prerequisites for LPAR storage correlation support in Veritas InfoScale Operations Manager
    2. Simplified storage management in VIOS
      1.  
        About simplified management
      2.  
        About Dynamic Multi-Pathing in a Virtual I/O server
      3.  
        About the Volume Manager (VxVM) component in a Virtual I/O server
      4. Configuring Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) on Virtual I/O server
        1.  
          Migrating from other multi-pathing solutions to DMP on Virtual I/O server
        2.  
          Migrating from MPIO to DMP on a Virtual I/O server for a dual-VIOS configuration
        3.  
          Migrating from PowerPath to DMP on a Virtual I/O server for a dual-VIOS configuration
      5. Configuring Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) pseudo devices as virtual SCSI devices
        1.  
          Exporting Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) devices as virtual SCSI disks
        2.  
          Exporting a Logical Volume as a virtual SCSI disk
        3.  
          Exporting a file as a virtual SCSI disk
      6. Extended attributes in VIO client for a virtual SCSI disk
        1.  
          Configuration prerequisites for providing extended attributes on VIO client for virtual SCSI disk
        2.  
          Displaying extended attributes of virtual SCSI disks
      7.  
        Virtual IO client adapter settings for Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) in dual-VIOS configurations
      8.  
        Using DMP to provide multi-pathing for the root volume group (rootvg)
      9.  
        Boot device management on NPIV presented devices
    3. Virtual machine (logical partition) availability
      1.  
        About virtual machine (logical partition) availability
      2.  
        VCS in the management LPAR
      3. Setting up management LPAR
        1.  
          Configuring password-less SSH communication between VCS nodes and HMC
      4. Setting up managed LPARs
        1.  
          Creating an LPAR profile
        2.  
          Bundled agents for managing the LPAR
        3.  
          Configuring VCS service groups to manage the LPAR
      5.  
        Managing logical partition (LPAR) failure scenarios
    4. Simplified management and high availability for IBM Workload Partitions
      1.  
        About IBM Workload Partitions
      2.  
        About using IBM Workload Partitions (WPARs) with Veritas InfoScale products
      3. Implementing Storage Foundation support for WPARs
        1.  
          Using a VxFS file system within a single system WPAR
        2.  
          WPAR with root (/) partition as VxFS
        3.  
          Using VxFS as a shared file system
      4. How Cluster Server (VCS) works with Workload Patitions (WPARs)
        1.  
          About the ContainerInfo attribute
        2.  
          About the ContainerOpts attribute
        3.  
          About the WPAR agent
      5. Configuring VCS in WPARs
        1. Prerequisites for configuring VCS in WPARs
          1.  
            About using custom agents in WPARs
        2.  
          Deciding on the WPAR root location
        3.  
          Creating a WPAR root on local disk
        4.  
          Creating WPAR root on shared storage using NFS
        5. Installing the application
          1. Configuring the service group for the application
            1.  
              Modifying the service group configuration
            2.  
              About configuring failovers
        6.  
          Verifying the WPAR configuration
        7.  
          Maintenance tasks
        8.  
          Troubleshooting information
      6.  
        Configuring AIX WPARs for disaster recovery using VCS
    5. High availability and live migration
      1.  
        About Live Partition Mobility (LPM)
      2.  
        About the partition migration process and simplified management
      3.  
        About Storage Foundation and High Availability (SFHA) Solutions support for Live Partition Mobility
      4.  
        Providing high availability with live migration in a Cluster Server environment
      5.  
        Providing logical partition (LPAR) failover with live migration
      6. Limitations and unsupported LPAR features
        1.  
          Live partition mobility of management LPARs
        2.  
          Live partition mobility of managed LPARs
    6. Multi-tier business service support
      1.  
        About Virtual Business Services
      2.  
        Sample virtual business service configuration
    7. Server consolidation
      1.  
        About server consolidation
      2. About IBM Virtual Ethernet
        1.  
          Shared Ethernet Adapter (SEA)
      3.  
        About IBM LPARs with virtual SCSI devices
      4. Using Storage Foundation in the logical partition (LPAR) with virtual SCSI devices
        1.  
          Using Storage Foundation with virtual SCSI devices
        2.  
          Setting up DMP for vSCSI devices in the logical partition (LPAR)
        3.  
          About disabling DMP for vSCSI devices in the logical partition (LPAR)
        4.  
          Preparing to install or upgrade Storage Foundation with DMP disabled for vSCSI devices in the logical partition (LPAR)
        5.  
          Disabling DMP multi-pathing for vSCSI devices in the logical partition (LPAR) after installation or upgrade
        6.  
          Adding and removing DMP support for vSCSI devices for an array
        7. How DMP handles I/O for vSCSI devices
          1.  
            Setting the vSCSI I/O policy
      5.  
        Using VCS with virtual SCSI devices
    8. Physical to virtual migration (P2V)
      1.  
        About migration from Physical to VIO environment
      2.  
        Migrating from Physical to VIO environment
  4. Section IV. Reference
    1. Appendix A. How to isolate system problems
      1.  
        About VxFS trace events
      2.  
        Tracing file read-write event
      3.  
        Tracing Inode cache event
      4.  
        Tracing Low Memory event
    2. Appendix B. Provisioning data LUNs
      1.  
        Provisioning data LUNs in a mixed VxVM and LVM environment
    3. Appendix C. Where to find more information
      1.  
        Veritas InfoScale documentation
      2.  
        Additional documentation for AIX virtualization
      3.  
        Service and support
      4.  
        About Veritas Services and Operations Readiness Tools (SORT)

About the AIX PowerVM virtualization technology

AIX logical partition or LPAR is a virtual machine in the IBM PowerVM virtualization technology.

Virtualizated technologies such as IBM PowerVM enable:

  • Better utilization of IT resources and sharing of I/O resources to lower costs

  • Greater flexibility to re-allocate resources to applications as needed

  • Simplification of the infrastructure management by making workloads independent of hardware resources

IBM LPAR virtualization components and terminology are identified in Table: :

Table:

IBM LPAR virtualization technology

Description

IBM logical partition (LPAR)

A virtual server with a subset of the physical server's processors, memory, and I/O adapter with its own operating system instance and applications.

Dynamic Logical Partition (DLPAR)

A virtual server with the ability to add or remove processors, network, or storage adapters while the server remains online.

Micro-partition

A virtual server with shared processor pools with support for up to10 micro-partitions per processor core. Depending upon the Power server, you can run up to 254 independent micro-partitions within a single physical Power server. Processor resources can be assigned at a granularity of 1/100th of a core. Also known as shared processor partition.

IBM LPARs with dedicated I/O

The baseline configuration is a traditional AIX deployment with dedicated HBAs and NICs. The deployment may include partitions with virtual CPUs or partitions that support dynamic re-configuration.

IBM LPARs with Virtual I/O Servers

With Virtual I/O Servers LPARs can share physical resources. The VIOS provides virtual SCSI, virtual fibre channel, and virtual networking for sharing. Sharing of resources between LPARs enables more efficient utilization of physical resources and facilitates consolidation.

POWER Hypervisor

The POWER Hypervisor is responsible for dispatching the logical partition workload across the shared physical processors. The POWER Hypervisor also enforces partition security, and provides inter-partition communication that enables the Virtual I/O Server's virtual SCSI and virtual Ethernet function.

Virtual I/O Server (VIOS)

The Virtual I/O Server facilitates the sharing of physical I/O resources among LPARs within the server. The Virtual I/O Server provides virtual SCSI target, virtual fibre channel, Shared Ethernet Adapter, PowerVM Active Memory Sharing and PowerVM Client Partition Mobility capability to client logical partitions within the physical server.

VIO client

The VIO client is a client LPAR that consumes resources shared by the VIO Server.

Virtual SCSI

Virtual disks vSCSI provided by the VIO server to reduce the need for dedicated physical disk resources for client partitions. vSCSI can be full LUNs or logical volumes.

Virtual Ethernet

In-memory network connections between partitions by POWER Hypervisor that reduce or eliminate the need for separate physical Ethernet Adapters in each LPAR.

Shared Ethernet Adapter

The Shared Ethernet Adapter (SEA) enables network traffic outside the physical server by routing it through a software-based layer 2 switch running in the VIO Server.

N_Port ID Virtualization

Virtual HBAs which enable multiple LPARs/micro-partitions to access SAN devices through shared HBAs providing direct Fibre Channel connections from client partitions to storage. Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) are owned by VIO Server Partition.

Workload Partitions (WPARs)

Workload Partitions enable administrators to virtualize the AIX operating system, by partitioning an AIX operating system instance into multiple environments. Each environment within the AIX operating system instance is called a workload partition (WPAR). One WPAR can host applications and isolate the applications from applications executing in other WPARs. WPAR is a pure software solution and has no dependencies on hardware features.

WPAR Manager

The WPAR manager allows an administrator to create, clone, and remove WPAR definitions, or start and stop WPARs. It enables Live Application Mobility which allows relocation of WPARs from one server to another without restarting the application. The WPAR Manager includes a policy engine to automate relocation of WPARs between systems based on system load and other metrics.

Application WPAR

An application Workload Partition (WPAR) is a lightweight partition in which individual applications run. An application WPAR can only run application processes, not system daemons such as inetd cron. An application WPAR is a temporary object which is removed when the application is completed.

System WPAR

A system Workload Partition (WPAR) has a private copy of many of the AIX OS parameters. If desired, it can have its own dedicated, completely writable file systems. Most OS daemons can run, and each system WPAR has its own user privilege space.

Live Partition Mobility

Live Partition Mobility enables greater control over the usage of resources in the data center by enabling the migration of a logical partition from one physical system to another. This feature enables the transfer of a configuration from source to destination without disrupting the hosted applications or the setup of the operating system and applications

Live Application Mobility

Live Application Mobility enables the planned migration of workloads from one system to another without interrupting the application and can be used to perform a planned firmware installation on a server.

Active Memory Sharing

Active Memory Sharing is a virtualization technology that enables multiple partitions to share a pool of physical memory. AMS increases system memory utilization and reduces the amount of physical memory that the system requires.

Active Memory Expansion

Active Memory Expansion relies on compression of in-memory data to increase the amount of data that can be placed into memory. This feature expands the effective memory capacity of a POWER7 system. The operating system manages the in-memory data compression, which is transparent to applications and users.

Hardware Management Console (HMC)

Dedicated hardware/software to configure and administer a partition capable POWER server.

Integrated Virtual Manager

Management console which runs in the VIO for partition management of entry level systems.

Lx86

Supports x86 Linux applications running on POWER.

Veritas InfoScale products can be used in LPAR-based virtualization environments to provide advanced storage management, mission-critical clustering, and failover capabilities. This guide illustrates some reference configurations for the use of Veritas InfoScale products 7.4.1 with IBM Power virtualization. These reference configurations can be customized to fit most implementations. An assumption is made that the reader understands the AIX operating system, including its architecture, as well as how to configure and manage LPARs using the management software already provided by AIX. There is also an expectation that the user is familiar with the basic Veritas InfoScale products software and is well versed with its administration and management utilities. Additional details regarding IBM AIX, LPARs, and Veritas InfoScale products software are available in the additional documentation section.

The Veritas InfoScale products support VIO clients that use memory from the Active Memory Sharing (AMS) pool. Veritas recommends that the ratio of the physical memory in the AMS pool should comply with the AIX guidelines.

Active Memory Expansion is configurable per logical partition (LPAR) . Active Memory Expansion can be selectively enabled for one or more LPARs on a system. When Active Memory Expansion is enabled for an LPAR, the operating system compresses a portion of the LPAR's memory and leaves the remaining portion of memory uncompressed. The memory is effectively broken up into two pools - a compressed pool and an uncompressed pool. The operating system dynamically varies the amount of memory that is compressed, based on the workload and the configuration of the LPAR.

See the IBM Redpaper PowerVM Virtualization documents for the AIX guidelines.