NPIV Setup and Configuration to Virtualize Fibre-channel card on IBM p6

With N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV), you can configure the managed system so that multiple logical partitions can access independent physical storage through the same physical fibre channel adapter. To access physical storage in a typical storage area network (SAN) that uses fibre channel, the physical storage is mapped to logical units (LUNs) and the LUNs are mapped to the ports of physical fibre channel adapters. Each physical port on each physical fibre channel adapter is identified using one worldwide port name (WWPN). NPIV is a standard technology for fibre channel networks that enables you to connect multiple logical partitions to one physical port of a physical fibre channel adapter. Each logical partition is identified by a unique WWPN, which means that you can connect each logical partition to independent physical storage on a SAN. The figure below illustrates a managed system configured to use NPIV :-   Requirements You can configure virtual fibre channel adapters on client logical partitions that run the following operating systems:   • AIX® version 6.1 Technology Level 2, or later • AIX 5.3 Technology Level 9 • SUSE Linux® Enterprise Server 11, or later   1. Basic requirements. 2. Benefits 3. Disadvantage if any....   1. Basic Requirements will contain: • Advance Power Vitalization License (VET Code) • 8 Gb fibre card. • NPIV supported san switch. • VIO version as 2.1.0 with SP20 and above, it is recommended please updates the VIOS version to latest level. • AIX version 5300-10 and above, Aix 6.1 6100-02-02-0849. • Power 6 hardware • System Firmware version to be 01E#340_075 and above ( where # = L,M,H = Low , Middle , High ) • HMC V7 R3.4.0 and System firmware 340-039   2. Benefits:   • Using NPIV we can assign the LUN's from the storage directly to the VIO client’s. Due to this no mapping will be required to be done from the VIO server. • Usefully when customer is using cluster environment's (HACMP, GPFS). • Unique WWN is generated for each virtual of fiber card. • No additional device driver's filesets needs to be installed on VIO server.   3. Disadvantages:   • NPIV support san switch is mandatory. • 8Gb fiber card can only be virtual • Advance VET license required which leds to additional costs. • Virtual of fiber tape drive is yet not supported.   Configuring Virtual fibre channel for HMC-Managed systems This section describes the steps to create a virtual fibre channel adapter on a p6 LPAR Creating a VFC host adapter on the VIO Server   • Select the VIOS and edit the profile • Go to the “Virtual Adapters” Tab o Select ‘Actions > Create > Fibre Channel Adapter’     • The type of adapter is “Server” since this is being created on the VIOS. • Put a ‘check’ in the box if the adapter is required at the time of partition activation. o You would need this box marked if you are using the adapter for SAN boot. I would recommend always checking it. • Select the client partition you want this Server adapter to be associated with. • Take a note of the assigned Server Adapter ID (13) and the Client Adapter ID (2). You will need to know this information when you create the client adapter. o If the VIO server is already active you will not be able to modify the adapter ID info in the profile once it has been created. Because of this you will need to first check the client for available virtual adapter ID's then when you create the VIO server adapter specify that available ID for the client adapter ID. • Select ‘OK’ to create   You now have a Virtual Fibre Channel (VFC) host adapter created. The next step is to go to you client partition and create a Virtual Fibre Channel client adapter which will be associated with the VFC host adapter. Creating a VFC client adapter on the VIO Client • From the Client Partition that you selected to use when creating the VFC host adapter in the previous steps, go to the “Virtual Adapters” tab then select ‘Actions > Create > Fibre Channel Adapter.. • You will see that the next available Virtual Adapter ID on the the client is “3”. o When we created the VFC host adapter the value was set to “2” for the client adapter ID. So you will have to go back and change the VFC host adapter after the VFC client adapter has been created so the client ID matches. • Put a ‘check’ in the box if the adapter is required at the time of partition activation. o You would need this box marked if you are using the adapter for SAN boot. I would recommend always checking it. • Select the Server partition which has the VFC host adapter that this VFC client adapter will be associated with. • Change the Server Adapter ID to match the Server Adapter ID that you took note of when creating the VFC host adapter. In this case it was “13”. • Select “OK” to create Linking the VFC host and VFC client adapters   • Now back on the VIO Server Partition, Edit the profile and go back to the “Virtual Adapters” tab, select ‘Actions > Edit > Fibre Channel Adapter.. • You will see that the Client Adapter ID is set to “2”. We need to change this to match the adapter ID that was assigned when creating the Client Adapter which was “3”. • Type in the Actual Client Adapter ID and Select “OK” to complete the change. Virtual Fibre Channel Adapter Verification   In the image below is what you should see from both the VIO Server and the Client Partition Profiles.You see the Server has a “Server Fibre Channel Adapter with and ID of “13”, Connecting Partition of“megatron01, and Connecting Adapter of “3” Then from the Client you will see the Client has a “Client Fibre Channel Adapter” with an ID of “3”, a Connecting Partition of “megatronv1”, and a Connecting Adapter of “13”.   • VIO Server: • VIO Client: Creating VFC client adapter on the IVM Client   NOTE: For IVM systems you do not need to create the server adapter and link the server and client adapters yourself. The IVM interface takes care of these two steps for you when you create the client adapter • Open the client properties window. Remember there is no profile for IVM partitions. Click on the "Storage" tab. Find and expand the "Virtual Fibre Channel" section. • If there is not already an entry showing "Automatically generate" under the WWPN column, click on "Add" • Select the new entry, and under the "Physical Port" column select the physical adapter, click ok • After the adapter has been created, you should see the new WWPNs under the "Worldwide Port Names" column • To verify connections and look up client WWPNs, click on the "View Virtual Fibre Channel" option from the main menu • You can see each physical adapter and their connections. Select the adapter and click on "View Partition Connections" to bring up the list of client connections and their WWPNs Mapping the VFC Host Adapter to Physical FC Port In the previous steps we created the virtual fibre channel adapters however they are not yet associated with any physical fibre channel adapter / port. So the next step is to associate the VFC host adapter on the VIO Server with a physical fibre channel adapter port enabling the vfc host adapter to log into the SAN. • Verify the VFC adapters are “Available” on the VIOS $ ioscli lsdev -dev vfchost* name status description vfchost0 Available Virtual FC Server Adapter • Show current VFC mappings to physical (In this example the vfchost has no mappings as indicated by the “NONE”) $ ioscli lsdev -dev vfchost0 -attr map_port NONE N/A True • Display the physical fibre channel adapters (You will decide which adapter / port to use based on how you setup you switch zoning and Storage allocation plan) $ ioscli lsdev -dev fcs* name status description fcs0 Available 8Gb PCI Express Dual Port FC Adapter (df1000f114108a03) fcs1 Available 8Gb PCI Express Dual Port FC Adapter (df1000f114108a03) • Map the virtual fibre channel adapter to the physical fibre channel adapter on the VIOS $ ioscli vfcmap -vadapter “VFCServerAdapter” -fcp “FCPName” Example: ioscli vfcmap –vadapter vfchost0 –fcp fcs0 • Show the VFC mapping to the physical fibre channel adapter ioscli lsdev -dev vfchost0 –attr map_port fcs0 N/A True WWPN, Allocations and Zoning Info When you do your storage allocations you will be allocating the storage directly to the WWPN of the VFC client adapter. If you are attempting to SAN boot, or do Storage allocations prior to the VIO client partition is activated you can display the VFC client adapter WWPN via the HMC with the following steps. • Go to the Client Partition profile and select edit > Select the Virtual Adapters Tab > Highlight the VFC adapter > Select ‘Actions’ > Properties As shown in the picture below, each VFC client adapter will have 2 WWPN’s. When allocating storage you should use the first WWPN in the list. The second WWPN is to be used when performing Partition Migrations (discussed later in this doc). If the VIO client is booted run the following command to display the active WWPN for the VFC client adapter: $ lscfg –vl fcsX <-- where X is the adapter number Network Address.............C05076002A7D0000