Shared Ethernet Adapter Configuration - IBM p5 590 System Handbook

In order to bridge network traffic between the virtual Ethernet and external
networks, the Virtual I/O Server has to be configured with at least one physical
Ethernet adapter. One Shared Ethernet Adapter can be shared by multiple
VLANs and multiple subnets can connect using a single adapter on the Virtual
I/O Server. Figure 3-8 shows a configuration example. A Shared Ethernet
Adapter can include up to 16 virtual Ethernet adapters that share the physical
access.
In Figure 3-8 and Figure 3-9 on page 76, the acronym RIOA means real I/O
adapter, and VIOA means the virtual I/O adapter.
Figure 3-8 Shared Ethernet Adapter configuration
In the LPAR profile for the VIO Server partition, the virtual Ethernet adapter
which will be associated with the (physical) Shared Ethernet Adapter must have
the trunk flag set. Once an Ethernet frame is sent from the virtual Ethernet
adapter on a client partition to the POWER Hypervisor, the POWER Hypervisor
searches for the destination MAC address within the VLAN. If no such MAC
address exists within the VLAN, it forwards the frame to the trunk virtual Ethernet
adapter that is defined on the same VLAN. The trunk virtual Ethernet adapter
enables a layer 2 bridge to a physical adapter.
The shared Ethernet directs packets based on the VLAN ID tags. It learns this
information based on observing the packets originating from the virtual adapters.
One of the virtual adapters in the Shared Ethernet adapter is designated as the
default PVID adapter. Ethernet frames without any VLAN ID tags are directed to
this adapter and assigned the default PVID.
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Chapter 3. POWER5 virtualization capabilities