Today’s network environments typically use a variety of Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs). The use of 12-bit VLAN IDs allows more than 4000 virtual networks in a physical network. Network administrators often give names to the various VLANs to make the purpose of a VLAN easier to understand. The network name Mgmt-AIX can easily be recognized as a management network for AIX systems. From the associated VLAN ID 815 the purpose is not recognizable.
The HMC offers the possibility to assign a symbolic name for each VLAN on a managed system. In the HMC GUI you can find the virtual networks after selecting the managed system under “Power VM“. On the command line of the HMC, the virtual networks are called vnetwork and you can administer them with the commands “lshwres -r virtualio –rsubtype vnetwork” and “chhwres -r virtualio –rsubtype vnetwork“. Examples follow. For users of the LPAR tool, there are the commands “ms addvnetwork“, “ms chvnetwork“, “ms lsvnetwork” and “ms rmvnetwork“.
First, let’s show all virtual networks of the managed system ms09:
$ ms lsvnetwork ms09 NAME VNETWORK VSWITCH TAGGED VLAN_ID ms09 VLAN725-ETHPROD ETHPROD 1 725 ms09 VLAN1410-ETHPROD ETHPROD 1 1410 ms09 VLAN1411-ETHPROD ETHPROD 1 1411 ms09 VLAN16-ETHPROD ETHPROD 0 16 ms09 VLAN15-ETHERNET0 ETHERNET0 0 15 ms09 VLAN14-ETHERNET0 ETHERNET0 0 14 ms09 VLAN1406-ETHERNET0 ETHERNET0 1 1406 ms09 VLAN815-ETHERNET0 ETHERNET0 0 815 $
(The corresponding command on the HMC is: lshwres -r virtualio –rsubtype vnetwork -m ms09)
By default, a vnetwork uses the prefix VLAN, followed by the VLAN ID, a minus sign, followed by the name of the virtual Ethernet switch. The TAGGED column indicates whether VLAN tagging is used or the network is used as a port VLAN ID.
The last line of the output contains the mentioned management network for AIX with the VLAN ID 815 at the default switch ETHERNET0. This shall now be renamed Mgmt-AIX:
$ ms chvnetwork ms09 VLAN815-ETHERNET0 new_name=Mgmt-AIX $
(The corresponding HMC command is: chhwres -r virtualio –rsubtype vnetwork -m ms09 -o s –vnetwork VLAN815-ETHERNET0 -a ’new_name=Mgmt-AIX‘)
A quick review shows that the virtual network was really renamed:
$ ms lsvnetwork ms09 NAME VNETWORK VSWITCH TAGGED VLAN_ID ms09 VLAN725-ETHPROD ETHPROD 1 725 ms09 VLAN1410-ETHPROD ETHPROD 1 1410 ms09 VLAN1411-ETHPROD ETHPROD 1 1411 ms09 VLAN16-ETHPROD ETHPROD 0 16 ms09 VLAN15-ETHERNET0 ETHERNET0 0 15 ms09 VLAN14-ETHERNET0 ETHERNET0 0 14 ms09 VLAN1406-ETHERNET0 ETHERNET0 1 1406 ms09 Mgmt-AIX ETHERNET0 0 815 $
Unfortunately, the virtual network has the new name only on the managed system ms09. We would also need to rename the virtual network on the other managed systems on which VLAN 815 exists. For each managed system (possibly different HMCs), it would be necessary to check with lshwres, whether there is the corresponding VLAN. That might be quite expensive, but it can certainly be handled with one or more for-loops.
This is a bit easier for users of the LPAR tool. We simply list all virtual networks and select only the entries for VLAN ID 815 andvirtual switch ETHERNET0:
$ ms lsvnetwork -s vswitch=ETHERNET0,vlan_id=815 NAME VNETWORK VSWITCH TAGGED VLAN_ID ms05 VLAN815-ETHERNET0 ETHERNET0 1 815 ms06 VLAN815-ETHERNET0 ETHERNET0 1 815 ms07 VLAN815-ETHERNET0 ETHERNET0 1 815 ms08 VLAN815-ETHERNET0 ETHERNET0 1 815 ms09 Mgmt-AIX ETHERNET0 1 815 ms11 VLAN815-ETHERNET0 ETHERNET0 1 815 … $
We only need the first column (name of the managed system), but without ms09 (the new name has already been set there):
$ ms lsvnetwork -s vswitch=ETHERNET0,vlan_id=815 -F name | grep -v ms09 ms05 ms06 ms07 ms08 ms11 ... $
If we pack this into a for-loop, then the virtual network can be renamed on all managed systems. Since we are careful, we first add an echo before the “ms chvnetwork” command:
$ for ms in $( ms lsvnetwork -s vswitch=ETHERNET0,vlan_id=815 -F name | grep -v ms09 ) > do > echo ms chvnetwork $ms VLAN815-ETHERNET0 new_name=Mgmt-AIX > done ms chvnetwork ms05 VLAN815-ETHERNET0 new_name=Mgmt-AIX ms chvnetwork ms06 VLAN815-ETHERNET0 new_name=Mgmt-AIX ms chvnetwork ms07 VLAN815-ETHERNET0 new_name=Mgmt-AIX ms chvnetwork ms08 VLAN815-ETHERNET0 new_name=Mgmt-AIX ms chvnetwork ms11 VLAN815-ETHERNET0 new_name=Mgmt-AIX ... $
The commands match and we omit the echo command and do the renaming.
$ for ms in $( ms lsvnetwork -s vswitch=ETHERNET0,vlan_id=815 -F name | grep -v ms09 ) > do > ms chvnetwork $ms VLAN815-ETHERNET0 new_name=Mgmt-AIX > done $
A quick check shows that the networks have been renamed.
$ ms lsvnetwork -s vswitch=ETHERNET0,vlan_id=815 NAME VNETWORK VSWITCH TAGGED VLAN_ID ms05 Mgmt-AIX ETHERNET0 1 815 ms06 Mgmt-AIX ETHERNET0 1 815 ms07 Mgmt-AIX ETHERNET0 1 815 ms08 Mgmt-AIX ETHERNET0 1 815 ms09 Mgmt-AIX ETHERNET0 1 815 ms11 Mgmt-AIX ETHERNET0 1 815 … $
Of course you can also specify the vnetwork in the search:
$ ms lsvnetwork -s vnetwork=Mgmt-AIX NAME VNETWORK VSWITCH TAGGED VLAN_ID ms05 Mgmt-AIX ETHERNET0 1 815 ms06 Mgmt-AIX ETHERNET0 1 815 ms07 Mgmt-AIX ETHERNET0 1 815 ms08 Mgmt-AIX ETHERNET0 1 815 ms09 Mgmt-AIX ETHERNET0 1 815 ms11 Mgmt-AIX ETHERNET0 1 815 … $
The result is identical as expected.
The use of network names identical to the names of the network colleagues, should also make communication easier. You really talk about the same thing.
One last note: The for-loop method is of course relatively cumbersome if you want to update many network names on all managed systems. We have a simple script for this purpose, which we can provide.
The second part covers the creation and deletion of virtual networks: PowerVM and Virtual Networks (Part 2)