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MappingVirtualSCSIDiskonVIOServers
May2014|byAdrianMahendrata

Irecentlyreceivedarequesttoincreaseafilesystemspace.AfteraquicklookattheAIXLPAR,I
noticedthatIneededtoaddmoreSANdisk(akaLUNs)tomyAIXLPAR.TheLUNsontheAIXLPAR
arevirtualizedthroughtheVIOserversusingvirtualSCSI.Letswalkthroughtheprocessofmappinga
virtualSCSIdisktoanAIXLPARandIllincludesometips.
Step1:RequesttheLUNstobemappedtotheVIOservers
First,weneedtheLUNstobemappedtotheVIOServers.Ifyourelucky,youmaybethestorage
administratorandcanturnthisaroundquickly.Howeverinmycase,Ineededtheassistanceofthe
storageadministratortoprovision,zoneandmaptheLUNstotheVIOservers.
InformationthatastorageadministratormayrequireistheWWN(WorldWideName)oftheFibre
ChanneladapterusedbytheVIOservers.TheWWNisusedtoidentifywhichFibreChanneladapter
thenewLUNwillbemappedto.
Step2:ScanandconfiguretheLUNsontheVIOServers
LoginaspadmintoboththeVIOServeryoushouldntneedtologintotheunrestrictedshelland
scantheLUNsprovisionedbythestorageadministratorusingthecfgdevcommand.
Step3:Identifythenewdisk
Oncethenewdiskshasbeenscannedanddetected,usethelspvcommandwiththefreeflagto
identifythenewdisks.
OnVIOServer1:

$ lspv -free
NAME PVID SIZE(megabytes)
hdisk30 none 256000
hdisk31 none 256000

OnVIOServer2:

$ lspv -free
NAME PVID SIZE(megabytes)
hdisk30 none 256000
hdisk31 none 256000

Asyoucanseefromthecommandoutput,thetwonewdisksonbothVIOserversarehdisk30and
hdisk31.Thedisksare250gigabytesinsizeandtheyhaventbeenassignedwithaPhysicalVolume
Identifier(PVID).
Formoreonthelspvfreecommand,refertomyarticleIdentifyingFreeDiskonVIOServers.
Step4:ConfigurediskattributesontheVIOServers
Diskattributessuchasqueue_depth,reserve_policy,hcheck_intervalandPVIDchangesmayonlybe
madewhenthediskdeviceisnotactive.OnceactivatedandmappedtotheAIXLPAR,diskattribute
changescanonlybemadetothedatabase(ODM).Toapplytheattributestotherunningdevice,a
rebootmaybeberequired.Therefore,itsagoodideatoconfigurethediskattributesbeforemapping
thediskstotheAIXLPAR.
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OnVIOServer1:

$ chdev -dev hdisk30 -attr pv=yes

hdisk30 changed
$ chdev -dev hdisk31 -attr pv=yes
hdisk31 changed
$ lspv -free
NAME PVID SIZE(megabytes)
hdisk30 00c4973e4734d635 256000
hdisk31 00c4973e47406329 256000

OnVIOServer2:

$ chdev -dev hdisk30 -attr pv=yes

hdisk30 changed
$ chdev -dev hdisk31 -attr pv=yes
hdisk31 changed
$ lspv -free
NAME PVID SIZE(megabytes)
hdisk30 00c4973e4734d635 256000
hdisk31 00c4973e47406329 256000

TIP:IliketosetthePVIDofthenewdisksatthispoint.Thismakesiteasiertoidentifythenewdisks(by
PVID)ontheAIXLPARwhentheyrepresentedlater.Italsomakesiteasiertomapoutthedisk
relationships(byPVID)betweentheVIOserversandtheclientAIXLPARinthefuture.
Step5:Identifythevirtualhostdevice
ThenextstepistoidentifytheLPARIDoftheAIXLPAR.TheLPARIDcanbeobtainedfromtheHMCor
fromtheLPARitselfbyrunningthelparstatcommandwiththeiflag.TheLPARIDistheLPARpartition
number.
OncetheLPARIDisknown32(Dec)inthisexampleyouneedtoconvertthedecimalnumberinto
hexadecimal20(Hex).
Nowwecanidentifythevirtualhostdevicebythehexadecimalnumber.Todothis,usethelsmap
commandasshown:
OnVIOServer1:

$ lsmap -all|grep vhost|grep 20

vhost1 U9117.570.104973E-V1-C11 0x00000020

OnVIOServer2:

$ lsmap -all|grep vhost|grep 20

vhost1 U9117.570.104973E-V1-C11 0x00000020

ThecommandoutputsuggeststhatthevirtualhostdeviceoftheAIXLPARonbothVIOserversis
vhost1.
TIP:AlwaystrytokeepthevirtualhostdevicethesamebetweenthetwoVIOservers.Youcanachieve
thisbyaddingorremovingvirtualSCSIslotsinthesameorder.Itmakessystemadministrationalot
simplerwhenthevirtualhostdevicesarethesameonboththeVIOservers.
Step6:MappingthevirtualSCSIdisk
NowwehavealltherequireinformationtostartmappingthevirtualSCSIdiskstotheAIXLPAR.Todo
this,usethemkvdevcommandasshown:

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OnVIOServer1:

$ mkvdev -vdev hdisk30 -vadapter vhost1 -dev pwraix_d01

pwraix_d01 Available

OnVIOServer2:

$ mkvdev -vdev hdisk30 -vadapter vhost1 -dev pwraix_d01

pwraix_d01 Available

ThecommandreadsthatImmappingadevicecalledpwraix_01onvirtualadaptervhost1usingthe
harddiskdevicehdisk30.
TIP:IliketousemeaningfulnamesfortheVTDdevicessuchaslparname_d01.Thisletsmeeasily
identifythediskandLPARrelationship,thusmakingdiskandvirtualSCSIadministrationeasier.Also
trytokeeptheVTDnamethesameonbothVIOservers.
Oncethedisksaremapped,checkthevirtualSCSImappingsforthevirtualadaptervhost1byrunning
thefollowingcommandonbothVIOservers:

$ lsmap -vadapter vhost1

ThecommandswilldisplayallthevirtualSCSImappinginformationbelongingtovirtualadapter
vhost1.
Step7:Scanandconfigurethenewdisks
Finally,wecannowlogontotheAIXLPARandscanthenewdisk.Wecanalsoquicklyidentifynewtwo
newdisksbylookingatthePVIDassignedinStep4.

pwraix:/ # cfgmgr
pwraix:/ # lspv|egrep "00c4973e4734d635|00c4973e47406329"
hdisk2 00c4973e4734d635 None
hdisk3 00c4973e47406329 None

Tip:Remembertoconfigurethediskattributes(pathpriorities,queue_depth,etc.)beforeyouconfigure
oraddthediskstothevolumegroup.Oncedisksareaddedtoavolumegroupandactivated,the
wholevolumegroupwillneedtobebroughtofflinetochangethediskattributes.
Thatsit!TheprocessofmappingvirtualSCSIdiskfromapairofVIOserverstoanAIXLPARisactually
quitesimple!

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