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Network
Network
Virtual I/O
Virtual I/O
External
External
storage
storage
Virtual
Virtual
SCSI
SCSI
Figure 2-6 Virtual partition organization view
Since the Virtual I/O Server is an appliance, redundancy for physical devices attached to the
Virtual I/O Server can be provided by using capabilities such as LVM mirroring, Multipath I/O,
and IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation.
Note: To increase the performances of I/O-intensive applications, dedicated physical
adapters should be preferred in dedicated partitions.
It is recommended that you install the Virtual I/O Server in a partition with dedicated
resources to help ensure consistent performance.
The Virtual I/O Server supports logical mirroring and RAID configurations. Logical volumes
created on Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) or Just a Bunch Of Disks
(JBOD) configurations are bootable, and the number of logical volumes is limited to the
amount of storage available and architectural limits of the logical volume manager (LVM).
Two major functions are provided with the Virtual I/O Server: A shared Ethernet adapter and
Virtual SCSI Server.
Shared Ethernet adapter
A shared Ethernet adapter is a new service that acts as a layer 2 network switch to route
network traffic from a Virtual Ethernet to a real network adapter. The shared Ethernet adapter
must be assigned to the Virtual I/O Server partition.
Virtual SCSI
Access to real storage devices is implemented through the Virtual SCSI services, a part of
the Virtual I/O Server partition. This is accomplished using a pair of virtual adapters, a virtual
SCSI server adapter, and a virtual SCSI client adapter. The virtual SCSI server (target)
adapter is responsible for executing any SCSI commands it receives. It is owned by the
Virtual I/O Server partition. The virtual SCSI client adapter allows the client partition to access
standard SCSI devices and LUNs that are assigned to the client partition.
All current storage device types, such as SAN, SCSI, and RAID, are supported. iSCSI and
SSA are not supported.
Micro-Partitioning
Micro-Partitioning
1 CPU
1 CPU
Server
Server
Linux
Linux
Virtual
Virtual
Adapter
Adapter
Enabled POWER Hypervisor
Enabled POWER Hypervisor
HMC
HMC
Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview
1 CPU
1 CPU
Network
Network
Virtual Ethernet
Virtual Ethernet
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