Please forgive me here as I don't fully understand what I am talking about here so if I use the wrong terminology please overlook me.
We have multiple AIX LPARs on the managed system with two VIO Servers. A Co-Worker and I are trying to set up a new LPAR client (The guy that knows this is out) and we are drowning. I use VSCSI on on POWER6 system so I know the general idea but this appears to be a bit different. We looked at other profiles and set up things that look right as for the virtual FC adapter in the VIO Server profile. We gave the adapter id 64 and we assigned an LPAR to it SAPTEST(5). Then modified the AIX LPAR profile to include a new FC Adapter and pointed it at the VIOS id side of 64. I think we gave the client side id 5. The LPAR id is 5 as well as the port id. We need to do this on both VIO Servers I know but just working with one right now.
However the output from the lsmap command does not show all the info I see on the other vfchosts already defined. The VFC client name, VFC client DRC, and ClntName slots are empty. From other articles I have read this will only populate after the client LPAR is up and has the proper multipathing software installed on it. Then the client and VIOS will sync up. That doesn't work for me when to get the client LPAR up I am depending on a SAN disk to install the O/S on.
What am I missing? I have run the vfcmap command to assign the vadapter to the VIO servers physical adapter.
vfcmap -vadapter vfchost15 -fcp fcs1
I have provided the output from the lsmap output below.
$ lsmap -vadapter vfchost15 -npiv
Name Physloc ClntID ClntName ClntOS
------------- ---------------------------------- ------ -------------- -------
vfchost15 U8233.E8B.101A99P-V2-C64 5
Status:NOT_LOGGED_IN
FC name:fcs1 FC loc code:U78A0.001.DNWHN7Y-P1-C1-T2
Ports logged in:0
Flags:4<NOT_LOGGED>
VFC client name: VFC client DRC:
Since we are depending on a SAN disk for boot we don't have an O/S on this client LPAR because we can't see the disk, so we are just getting to the SMS screen in our case. To answer you question those fields do not fill in.
Did you check them when you were at the SMS menus? The LPAR has to be booted far enough along that the virtual fiber cards are started and you should see them connect to the VIO server. When the LPAR is down, the virtual fiber cards are gone and that is why you don't see them on the VIO server side.
I see the two cards from the SMS menu on the client side that were defined for the client in the HMC, but when looking at lsmap on the VIO side I still see no changes to the output for my vfchost. I have two physical FC cards in my VIO Server should it matter which one I picked when I ran the vfcmap command?
Boot the client to SMS then select menu item 5. Select Boot Options then select 4. SAN zoning. This will result in the adapters being shown. Select each adapter in turn which will lead to the panel which shows that the adapter is open. The adapter should now be logged into the respective VIO server in the lsmap screen.
My apologies to XrAY as I was out a few days camping and only had email service on my phone and tried to email a response but I can see now it never made it. Not sure I can even post to this via email. Anyway moving forward.
I have not zoned the WWPN's as I can't see them in the SAN to zone them. Not sure if you wanted me to post everything from the lssyscfg command as there are around 20 LPARS on this managed system so I just included what I think you are looking for. Let me know if you want more.
---------- Post updated at 07:33 PM ---------- Previous update was at 07:26 PM ----------
johnf,
I had looking at that zoning screen before but didn't try to select the cards. I have performed that step and I get the following output.
The selected adapter has been opened.
Zoning of attached disks may now be possible.
Press any key to close the adapter and return to the previous menu.
From the VIO Server side running the lsmap command it goes from
$ lsmap -vadapter vfchost15 -npiv
Name Physloc ClntID ClntName ClntOS
------------- ---------------------------------- ------ -------------- -------
vfchost15 U8233.E8B.101A99P-V2-C64 5
Status:NOT_LOGGED_IN
FC name: FC loc code:
Ports logged in:0
Flags:1<NOT_MAPPED,NOT_CONNECTED>
VFC client name: VFC client DRC:
to
$ lsmap -vadapter vfchost15 -npiv
Name Physloc ClntID ClntName ClntOS
------------- ---------------------------------- ------ -------------- -------
vfchost15 U8233.E8B.101A99P-V2-C64 5 SAPTEST FIRMWARE
Status:LOGGED_IN
FC name:fcs0 FC loc code:U78A0.001.DNWHN7Y-P1-C1-T1
Ports logged in:1
Flags:a<LOGGED_IN,STRIP_MERGE>
VFC client name:Virtual Fibre Channel - Firmware driverVFC client DRC:U8233.E8B.101A99P-V5-C4
After hitting enter on the SMS screen as it states I run the lsmap command on the VIO Server side again and it goes back to it's original state of not being connected. So yes it appears to be connected for a time but not sure what to do with it. I was still not able to see it in my SAN switch during any of this process.
You need to check both VIO servers to make sure both virtual HBAs are connecting through the VIO servers. We can see from the item above in red that FCS0 is mapped to the VFChost which is coming up. Now you need to check which HBA the VFChost on the other VIO is mapped to. Then using this information check that the storage is zoned to the Physical WWNs and the Virtual WWNs on both adapters.
Are you booting the VIO servers from SAN or internal disk?
Then using this information check that the storage is zoned to the Physical WWNs and the Virtual WWNs on both adapters.
I have learned that it is not recommendet to zone the physical WWN from the NPIV-adapter.
I was still not able to see it in my SAN switch during any of this process.
We ran into the same problem as we have begun to setup our new virtual systems.
After some hot discussions with our SAN/Storage Group, they create the zones/mappings with the WWPNs which we are giving to them without seeing the ports logged in.
But after activating (opening) the adapter in the SMS menu, you should be able to see (one of) the WWPN on your switch - may it take some time till the switch refresh the list of logged in ports.
You can see the virtual wwpns on san switch when you you go to zoning from SMS menu and dont hit enter as it closes the port, the other way is just boot that vio client lpar from os cd and continue till it asks "press 1 to have english during install"
Then as long as you map your virtual fibre channel adapters to the same physical adapters you will know that the connection will be live and a FLOGGI will happen for the virtual fibre channel adapters. However it might be that the visible Virtual World Wide Name will not be visible from the storage. What storage are you connecting to IBM, HP or something else. There are two ways to "illuminate" the HBAs, these are:
SMS
or
ioinfo
from the open firmware prompt.
The best one to use is SMS as you can illuminate the HBA and leave it in that state until you hit return, thus the storage team will see the VWWN.
The ioinfo method is good to check the working of the VHBAs.