Category: LPAR tool

Informations for the LPAR tool

Posted on

Adding a Virtual Ethernet Adapter

Delivery of tagged packets, here for the VLAN 200.

If in a PowerVM environment a virtual Ethernet adapter is to be added to an active LPAR using the LPAR-Tool, the LPAR must have an active RMC connection to an HMC. This requires an active Ethernet adapter (physical or virtual). A free virtual slot is required for the virtual Ethernet adapter.

$ lpar lsvslot aix22
SLOT  REQ  ADAPTER_TYPE   STATE  DATA
0     Yes  serial/server  1      remote: (any)/any connect_status=unavailable hmc=1
1     Yes  serial/server  1      remote: (any)/any connect_status=unavailable hmc=1
5     No   eth            1      PVID=100 VLANS= ETHERNET0 1DC8DB485D1E
10    No   fc/client      1      remote: ms03-vio1(1)/5 c05076030aba0002,c05076030aba0003
20    No   fc/client      1      remote: ms03-vio2(2)/4 c05076030aba0000,c05076030aba0001
$

The virtual slot 6 is not yet used by the LPAR aix22. A virtual Ethernet adapter can be added with the command “lpar addeth“. At least the desired virtual slot number for the adapter and the desired port VLAN ID must be specified:

$ lpar addeth aix22 6 900
$

In the example, a virtual Ethernet adapter for aix22 with port VLAN ID 900 was created in slot 6. If the slot number doesn’t matter, the keyword auto can be specified instead of a number; the LPAR tool then automatically assigns a free slot number. The virtual adapter is available immediately, but must first be made known to the operating system. How this happens exactly depends on the operating system used. In the case of AIX there is the cfgmgr command for this purpose.

After the virtual Ethernet adapter has been added, but before a run of cfgmgr is started, only the virtual Ethernet adapter ent0 is known to the AIX operating system of the LPAR aix22:

aix22 # lscfg -l ent*
  ent0             U9009.22A.8991971-V30-C5-T1  Virtual I/O Ethernet Adapter (l-lan)
aix22 #

After a run of cfgmgr the newly added virtual Ethernet adapter appears as ent1:

aix22 # cfgmgr
aix22 # lscfg -l ent*
  ent0             U9009.22A.8991971-V30-C5-T1  Virtual I/O Ethernet Adapter (l-lan)
  ent1             U9009.22A.8991971-V30-C6-T1  Virtual I/O Ethernet Adapter (l-lan)
aix22 #

Note: On AIX, the device name for an Ethernet adapter cannot be used to identify the type. Regardless of whether an Ethernet adapter is physical or virtual or a virtual function of an SR-IOV adapter, the device name ent with an ascending instance number is always used.

If an IEEE 802.1q compatible virtual Ethernet adapter with additional VLAN IDs is to be created, the option “-i” (IEEE 802.1q compatible adapter) must be used. Alternatively, the ieee_virtual_eth=1 attribute can also be specified. The additional VLAN IDs are specified as a comma-separated list:

$ lpar addeth -i aix22 7 900 100,200,300
$

The port VLAN ID is 900, and the additional VLAN IDs are 100, 200 and 300.
If an LPAR has no active RMC connection or is not active, then a virtual Ethernet adapter can only be added to one of the profiles of the LPAR. This is always the case, for example, if the LPAR has just been created and has not yet been installed.

In this case, only the option “-p” with a profile name has to be used for the commands shown. Which profiles an LPAR has, can easily be found out using “lpar lsprof” (list profiles):

$ lpar lsprof aix22
NAME                      MEM_MODE  MEM   PROC_MODE  PROCS  PROC_COMPAT
standard                  ded       7168  ded        2      default
last*valid*configuration  ded       7168  ded        2      default
$

(The last active configuration is stored in the profile with the name last*valid*configuration.)

The virtual adapters defined in the profile standard can then be displayed by specifying the profile name with “lpar lsvslot“:

$ lpar -p standard lsvslot aix22
SLOT  REQ  ADAPTER_TYPE   DATA
0     Yes  serial/server  remote: (any)/any connect_status= hmc=1
1     Yes  serial/server  remote: (any)/any connect_status= hmc=1
5     No   eth            PVID=100 VLANS= ETHERNET0 
6     No   eth            PVID=900 VLANS= ETHERNET0 
7     No   eth            IEEE PVID=900 VLANS=100,200,300 ETHERNET0 
10    No   fc/client      remote: ms03-vio1(1)/5 c05076030aba0002,c05076030aba0003
20    No   fc/client      remote: ms03-vio2(2)/4 c05076030aba0000,c05076030aba0001
$

When adding the adapter, only the corresponding profile name has to be given, otherwise the command looks exactly as shown above:

$ lpar -p standard addeth -i aix22 8 950 150,250
$

In order to make the new adapter available in slot 8, the LPAR must be activated again by default, specifying the profile name.

7.3. Virtual Ethernet

7.3.1. VLANs and VLAN Tagging

7.3.2. Adding a Virtual Ethernet Adapter

7.3.3. Virtuelle Ethernet Switches

7.3.4. Virtual Ethernet Bridge Mode (VEB)

7.3.5. Virtual Ethernet Port Aggregator Mode (VEPA)

7.3.6. Virtual Networks

7.3.7. Adding and Removing VLANs to/from an Adapter

7.3.8. Changing Attributes of a Virtual Ethernet Adapter

7.3.9. Removing a Virtual Ethernet Adapter

Posted on

Monitoring virtual FC Client Traffic

With the LPAR tool, statistics for all virtual FC clients can be displayed at any time using the “vios fcstat” command. This allows you to determine at any time which client LPARs have which I/O throughput (when using NPIV).

Which NPIV-capable FC adapters are available on a virtual I/O server can easily be found out with “vios lsnports“:

$ vios lsnports ms15-vio1
NAME  PHYSLOC                     FABRIC  TPORTS  APORTS  SWWPNS  AWWPNS
fcs0  U78CB.001.XXXXXXX-P1-C5-T1  1       64      62      2032    2012
fcs1  U78CB.001.XXXXXXX-P1-C5-T2  1       64      62      2032    2012
fcs2  U78CB.001.XXXXXXX-P1-C5-T3  1       64      61      2032    1979
fcs3  U78CB.001.XXXXXXX-P1-C5-T4  1       64      61      2032    1979
fcs4  U78CB.001.XXXXXXX-P1-C3-T1  1       64      50      3088    3000
fcs5  U78CB.001.XXXXXXX-P1-C3-T2  1       64      63      3088    3077
$

We display the FC client statistics with the command “vios fcstat”. By default, the data for all virtual FC clients of the specified virtual I/O server are shown every 10 seconds:

$ vios fcstat ms15-vio1
HOSTNAME   PHYSDEV  WWPN                DEV    INREQS    INBYTES      OUTREQS    OUTBYTES     CTRLREQS
ms15-vio1  fcs1     0x210000XXXXX56EC5  fcs1   774.75/s  129.51 MB/s  1332.71/s   92.96 MB/s  20
aixtsmp1   fcs2     0xC050760XXXXX0058  fcs6   318.10/s   83.39 MB/s  481.34/s   126.18 MB/s  0
ms15-vio1  fcs2     0x210000XXXXX56EC6  fcs2   318.10/s   83.39 MB/s  480.78/s   126.03 MB/s  0
aixtsmp1   fcs5     0xC050760XXXXX003E  fcs0   583.98/s   60.35 MB/s  1835.17/s  124.86 MB/s  0
ms15-vio1  fcs5     0x10000090XXXXX12D  fcs5   583.70/s   60.27 MB/s  1836.21/s  124.92 MB/s  0
ms15-vio1  fcs0     0x21000024XXXXXEC4  fcs0   923.19/s  165.08 MB/s  1032.81/s   17.25 MB/s  46
aixtsmp3   fcs1     0xC050760XXXXX00E4  fcs0   775.12/s  129.48 MB/s  1047.32/s   17.15 MB/s  20
aixtsmp3   fcs0     0xC050760XXXXX00DE  fcs1   775.78/s  128.99 MB/s  1037.99/s   17.39 MB/s  20
aixtsmp1   fcs1     0xC050760XXXXX0056  fcs5     0.00/s    0.00 B/s   290.39/s    76.12 MB/s  0
aixtsmp1   fcs0     0xC050760XXXXX0052  fcs4   142.89/s   36.12 MB/s    0.00/s     0.00 B/s   26
ms15-vio1  fcs4     0x10000090XXXXX12C  fcs4   234.97/s    4.58 MB/s  621.78/s    11.12 MB/s  40
cus1dbp01  fcs4     0xC050760XXXXX0047  fcs0   243.55/s    5.05 MB/s  432.33/s     9.95 MB/s  0
cus1dbi01  fcs4     0xC050760XXXXX0044  fcs1     0.94/s   10.42 KB/s   87.28/s   459.26 KB/s  0
...
HOSTNAME   PHYSDEV  WWPN                DEV    INREQS     INBYTES      OUTREQS    OUTBYTES     CTRLREQS
aixtsmp1   fcs5     0xC050760XXXXX003E  fcs0   1772.84/s  162.24 MB/s  1309.30/s   70.60 MB/s  68
ms15-vio1  fcs5     0x10000090XXXXX12D  fcs5   1769.13/s  161.95 MB/s  1305.60/s   70.54 MB/s  68
ms15-vio1  fcs1     0x21000024XXXXXEC5  fcs1   883.55/s   118.97 MB/s  1551.97/s  108.78 MB/s  43
ms15-vio1  fcs2     0x21000024XXXXXEC6  fcs2   201.09/s    52.72 MB/s  497.26/s   130.35 MB/s  0
aixtsmp1   fcs2     0xC050760XXXXX0058  fcs6   201.09/s    52.72 MB/s  495.40/s   129.87 MB/s  0
ms15-vio1  fcs0     0x21000024XXXXXEC4  fcs0   923.54/s   128.89 MB/s  1234.98/s   23.31 MB/s  65
aixtsmp3   fcs0     0xC050760XXXXX00DE  fcs1   876.93/s   118.93 MB/s  1234.98/s   23.32 MB/s  44
aixtsmp3   fcs1     0xC050760XXXXX00E4  fcs0   884.17/s   119.07 MB/s  1223.50/s   23.00 MB/s  43
aixtsmp1   fcs1     0xC050760XXXXX0056  fcs5     0.00/s     0.00 B/s   325.83/s    85.41 MB/s  0
...
^C
$

The LPAR name, the physical FC port (PHYSDEV) on the virtual I/O server, the WWPN of the client adapter, the virtual FC client port (DEV), as well as the number of requests (INREQS and OUTREQS) and thereby transferred bytes (INBYTES and OUTBYTES). The transfer rates are output in KB/s, MB/s or GB/s. The output can be very long on larger systems! The output is sorted according to throughput, i.e. the most active virtual client adapters are output first. With the option ‘-t‘ (top) the output can be restricted to a desired number of data records: e.g. with ‘-t 10‘ only the top ten adapters with the highest throughput are shown. In addition, the interval length (in seconds) can be specified via a further argument, here is a short example:

$ vios fcstat -t 10 ms15-vio1 2
HOSTNAME   PHYSDEV  WWPN                DEV   INREQS     INBYTES      OUTREQS    OUTBYTES     CTRLREQS
ms15-vio1  fcs1     0x21000024XXXXXEC5  fcs1  1034.58/s   86.56 MB/s  2052.23/s  160.11 MB/s  20
ms15-vio1  fcs5     0x10000090XXXXX12D  fcs5  1532.63/s  115.60 MB/s  1235.72/s  118.32 MB/s  40
aixtsmp1   fcs5     0xC050760XXXXX003E  fcs0  1510.33/s  114.88 MB/s  1236.49/s  118.27 MB/s  40
aixtsmp3   fcs1     0xC050760XXXXX00E4  fcs0  1036.11/s   86.67 MB/s  1612.25/s   44.86 MB/s  20
aixtsmp3   fcs0     0xC050760XXXXX00DE  fcs1  1031.50/s   86.29 MB/s  1588.02/s   44.27 MB/s  20
ms15-vio1  fcs0     0x21000024XXXXXEC4  fcs0  1029.58/s   86.31 MB/s  1567.63/s   43.65 MB/s  20
aixtsmp1   fcs1     0xC050760XXXXX0056  fcs5    0.00/s     0.00 B/s   436.52/s   114.43 MB/s  0
ms15-vio1  fcs2     0x21000024XXXXXEC6  fcs2    0.00/s     0.00 B/s   435.75/s   114.23 MB/s  0
aixtsmp1   fcs2     0xC050760XXXXX0058  fcs6    0.00/s     0.00 B/s   432.68/s   113.42 MB/s  0
ms15-vio1  fcs4     0x10000090XXXXX12C  fcs4  144.99/s     0.78 MB/s  478.83/s     2.22 MB/s  46
HOSTNAME   PHYSDEV  WWPN                DEV   INREQS    INBYTES      OUTREQS    OUTBYTES     CTRLREQS
aixtsmp1   fcs5     0xC050760XXXXX003E  fcs0  758.14/s   35.55 MB/s  1822.99/s  112.60 MB/s  0
ms15-vio1  fcs5     0x10000090XXXXX12D  fcs5  757.38/s   35.52 MB/s  1821.46/s  112.59 MB/s  0
ms15-vio1  fcs0     0x21000024XXXXXEC4  fcs0  944.23/s   85.09 MB/s  1657.58/s   41.40 MB/s  2
aixtsmp3   fcs0     0xC050760XXXXX00DE  fcs1  943.47/s   85.15 MB/s  1636.90/s   40.68 MB/s  2
ms15-vio1  fcs1     0x21000024XXXXXEC5  fcs1  949.21/s   84.88 MB/s  1586.74/s   39.41 MB/s  2
aixtsmp3   fcs1     0xC050760XXXXX00E4  fcs0  946.53/s   84.64 MB/s  1584.83/s   39.40 MB/s  2
ms15-vio1  fcs4     0x10000090XXXXX12C  fcs4   39.44/s  449.92 KB/s  676.97/s     3.63 MB/s  10
cus1dbp01  fcs4     0xC050760XXXXX0047  fcs0   29.10/s  471.69 KB/s  310.92/s     1.28 MB/s  4
cus1mqp01  fcs4     0xC050760XXXXX002C  fcs0    1.91/s    4.71 KB/s  230.12/s     1.66 MB/s  0
cus2orap01 fcs4     0xC050760XXXXX000F  fcs0    0.77/s    4.31 KB/s   48.25/s   263.49 KB/s  0
^C
$

The option ‘-s‘ (select) can be used to select and show only data records from a specific client (‘-s hostname = aixtsmp1‘) or only data records from a specific physical port (‘-s physdev = fcs1‘):

$ vios fcstat -s hostname=aixtsmp1 ms15-vio1 2
HOSTNAME  PHYSDEV  WWPN                DEV   INREQS     INBYTES      OUTREQS    OUTBYTES     CTRLREQS
aixtsmp1  fcs5     0xC050760XXXXX003E  fcs0  1858.72/s   51.14 MB/s  1231.82/s  104.20 MB/s  0
aixtsmp1  fcs2     0xC050760XXXXX0058  fcs6    6.94/s     1.82 MB/s    6.94/s     1.82 MB/s  0
aixtsmp1  fcs4     0xC050760XXXXX0042  fcs2    0.39/s     1.19 KB/s    0.39/s   395.05 B/s   0
aixtsmp1  fcs1     0xC050760XXXXX0056  fcs5    0.39/s     7.72 B/s     0.00/s     0.00 B/s   1
aixtsmp1  fcs0     0xC050760XXXXX0052  fcs4    0.00/s     0.00 B/s     0.00/s     0.00 B/s   0
aixtsmp1  fcs3     0xC050760XXXXX005A  fcs7    0.00/s     0.00 B/s     0.00/s     0.00 B/s   0
HOSTNAME  PHYSDEV  WWPN                DEV   INREQS     INBYTES      OUTREQS    OUTBYTES     CTRLREQS
aixtsmp1  fcs5     0xC050760XXXXX003E  fcs0  1760.48/s  111.48 MB/s  1125.70/s   95.20 MB/s  0
aixtsmp1  fcs2     0xC050760XXXXX0058  fcs6    8.53/s     2.24 MB/s  484.61/s   127.04 MB/s  0
aixtsmp1  fcs1     0xC050760XXXXX0056  fcs5    0.00/s     0.00 B/s   469.04/s   122.96 MB/s  0
aixtsmp1  fcs4     0xC050760XXXXX0042  fcs2    0.37/s     1.14 KB/s    0.00/s     0.00 B/s   0
aixtsmp1  fcs0     0xC050760XXXXX0052  fcs4    0.00/s     0.00 B/s     0.00/s     0.00 B/s   0
aixtsmp1  fcs3     0xC050760XXXXX005A  fcs7    0.00/s     0.00 B/s     0.00/s     0.00 B/s   0
^C
$

With the “vios fcstat” command, FC throughput of any LPAR can be shown at any time in an extremely simple way, at the push of a button, so to speak.

If the intervals are smaller, the accuracy of the displayed values suffers. At 2 second intervals the inaccuracy is approx. 10%. However, the relationship between the displayed values is still correct.

Posted on

LPAR-Tool 1.6.0.0 is available now

Version 1.6.0.0 of our LPAR tool is now available in our download area!

New features are:

  • Online monitoring of SEA client statistics (vios help seastat)
  • Online monitoring of virtual FC client adapters (vios help fcstat)
  • Display of historical processor and memory data (lpar help lsmem, lpar help lsproc)

In the article Monitoring SEA Traffic the possibilities of calling up SEA client statistics are shown.

Posted on

The Impact of FC-Ports without a Link

FC ports that are not used and do not have a link should be deactivated, as these significantly extend the runtime of a series of commands and operations (e.g. LPM).

(Note: our LPAR tool is used in some examples, but the corresponding commands on the HMC or the virtual I / O server are always shown!)

Two 4-port FC adapters are in use on one of our virtual I / O servers (ms26-vio1):

$ lpar lsslot ms26-vio1
DRC_NAME                  DRC_INDEX  IOPOOL  DESCRIPTION
U78D3.001.XXXXXXX-P1-C49  21040015   none    PCIe3 x8 SAS RAID Internal Adapter 6Gb
U78D3.001.XXXXXXX-P1-C7   2103001C   none    PCIe3 4-Port 16Gb FC Adapter
U78D3.001.XXXXXXX-P1-C2   21010021   none    PCIe3 4-Port 16Gb FC Adapter
$
(HMC: lshwres -r io --rsubtype slot -m ms26 --filter lpar_names=ms26-vio1)

However, only 2 ports of the 8 ports are cabled:

$ vios lsnports ms26-vio1
NAME  PHYSLOC                     FABRIC  TPORTS  APORTS  SWWPNS  AWWPNS
fcs0  U78D3.001.XXXXXXX-P1-C2-T1  1       64      64      3072    3072
fcs4  U78D3.001.XXXXXXX-P1-C7-T1  1       64      64      3072    3072
$
(VIOS: lsnports)

When working with the virtual I / O server, it is noticeable, that some of the commands have an unexpectedly long runtime and sometimes hang for a long time. Some example commands are given below, along with the measured runtime:

(0)padmin@ms26-vio1:/home/padmin> time netstat –cdlistats
…
Error opening device: /dev/fscsi1
errno: 00000045

Error opening device: /dev/fscsi2
errno: 00000045

Error opening device: /dev/fscsi3
errno: 00000045

Error opening device: /dev/fscsi5
errno: 00000045

Error opening device: /dev/fscsi6
errno: 00000045

Error opening device: /dev/fscsi7
errno: 00000045

real    1m13.56s
user    0m0.03s
sys     0m0.10s
(0)padmin@ms26-vio1:/home/padmin>
(0)padmin@ms26-vio1:/home/padmin> time lsnports
name             physloc                        fabric tports aports swwpns  awwpns
fcs0             U78D3.001.XXXXXXX-P1-C2-T1          1     64     64   3072    3072
fcs4             U78D3.001.XXXXXXX-P1-C7-T1          1     64     64   3072    3072

real    0m11.61s
user    0m0.01s
sys     0m0.00s
(0)padmin@ms26-vio1:/home/padmin>
(0)padmin@ms26-vio1:/home/padmin> time fcstat fcs1

Error opening device: /dev/fscsi1
errno: 00000045

real    0m11.31s
user    0m0.01s
sys     0m0.01s
(4)padmin@ms26-vio1:/home/padmin>

LPM operations also take significantly longer, since all FC ports are examined when searching for suitable FC ports for the necessary NPIV mappings. This can lead to delays in the range of minutes before the migration is finally started.

In order to avoid these unnecessarily long runtimes, FC ports that are not wired should not be activated. The fscsi device has the attribute autoconfig, with the possible values defined and available. By default, the value available is used, which means that the kernel configures and activates the device, even if it has no link, which leads to the waiting times shown above. If the autoconfig attribute is set to defined, the fscsi device is not activated, it then remains in the defined state.

The following example shows how to reconfigure the fscsi1 device:

$ vios chdev ms26-vio1 fscsi1 autoconfig=defined
$
(VIOS: chdev -dev fscsi1 -attr autoconfig=defined)
$
$ vios rmdev ms26-vio1 fscsi1
$
(VIOS: rmdev -dev fscsi1 –ucfg)
$
$ vios lsdev ms26-vio1 fscsi1
NAME    STATUS   PHYSLOC                     PARENT  DESCRIPTION
fscsi1  Defined  U78D3.001.XXXXXXX-P1-C2-T2  fcs1    FC SCSI I/O Controller Protocol Device
$
(VIOS: lsdev -dev fscsi1)
$
$  vios lsattr ms26-vio1 fscsi1
ATTRIBUTE     VALUE      DESCRIPTION                            USER_SETTABLE
attach        none       How this adapter is CONNECTED          False
autoconfig    defined    Configuration State                    True
dyntrk        yes        Dynamic Tracking of FC Devices         True+
fc_err_recov  fast_fail  FC Fabric Event Error RECOVERY Policy  True+
scsi_id       Adapter    SCSI ID                                False
sw_fc_class   3          FC Class for Fabric                    True
$
(VIOS: lsdev -dev fscsi1 –attr)
$

With the autoconfig=defined attribute, the fscsi device remains defined even when the cfgmgr is run!

If one repeats the runtime measurement of the commands above, one can see that the runtime of the commands has already measurably improved:

(0)padmin@ms26-vio1:/home/padmin> time netstat –cdlistats
…
Error opening device: /dev/fscsi1
errno: 00000005

Error opening device: /dev/fscsi2
errno: 00000045

Error opening device: /dev/fscsi3
errno: 00000045

Error opening device: /dev/fscsi5
errno: 00000045

Error opening device: /dev/fscsi6
errno: 00000045

Error opening device: /dev/fscsi7
errno: 00000045

real    1m1.02s
user    0m0.04s
sys     0m0.10s
(0)padmin@ms26-vio1:/home/padmin>
(0)padmin@ms26-vio1:/home/padmin> time lsnports
name             physloc                        fabric tports aports swwpns  awwpns
fcs0             U78D3.001.XXXXXXX-P1-C2-T1          1     64     64   3072    3072
fcs4             U78D3.001.XXXXXXX-P1-C7-T1          1     64     64   3072    3072

real    0m9.70s
user    0m0.00s
sys     0m0.01s
(0)padmin@ms26-vio1:/home/padmin>
(0)padmin@ms26-vio1:/home/padmin> time fcstat fcs1

Error opening device: /dev/fscsi1
errno: 00000005

real    0m0.00s
user    0m0.02s
sys     0m0.00s
(4)padmin@ms26-vio1:/home/padmin>

The running time of the netstat command was shortened by 12 seconds, the lsnports command was about 2 seconds faster.

We now also set the autoconfig attribute to defined for all other unused FC ports:

$ for fscsi in fscsi2 fscsi3 fscsi5 fscsi6 fscsi7
> do
> vios chdev ms26-vio1 $fscsi autoconfig=defined
> vios rmdev ms26-vio1 $fscsi
> done
$

Now we repeat the runtime measurement of the commands again:

(0)padmin@ms26-vio1:/home/padmin> time netstat –cdlistats
…
Error opening device: /dev/fscsi1
errno: 00000005

Error opening device: /dev/fscsi2
errno: 00000005

Error opening device: /dev/fscsi3
errno: 00000005

Error opening device: /dev/fscsi5
errno: 00000005

Error opening device: /dev/fscsi6
errno: 00000005

Error opening device: /dev/fscsi7
errno: 00000005

real    0m0.81s
user    0m0.03s
sys     0m0.10s
(0)padmin@ms26-vio1:/home/padmin>
(0)padmin@ms26-vio1:/home/padmin> time lsnports         
name             physloc                        fabric tports aports swwpns  awwpns
fcs0             U78D3.001.XXXXXXX-P1-C2-T1          1     64     64   3072    3072
fcs4             U78D3.001.XXXXXXX-P1-C7-T1          1     64     64   3072    3072

real    0m0.00s
user    0m0.01s
sys     0m0.01s
(0)padmin@ms26-vio1:/home/padmin> time fcstat fcs1       

Error opening device: /dev/fscsi1
errno: 00000005

real    0m0.04s
user    0m0.00s
sys     0m0.00s
(4)padmin@ms26-vio1:/home/padmin>

The netstat command now takes less than 1 second, the lsnports command only 0.1 seconds.

It is therefore worthwhile to set the autoconfig attribute for unused FC ports to defined!

 

Posted on

LPAR-Tool in Action: Examples

The LPAR tool can administer HMCs, managed systems, LPARs and virtual-I/O-servers via the command line. The current version of the LPAR tool (currently 1.4.0.2) can be downloaded from our download page https://powercampus.de/download. A trial license, valid until October 31, is included. This article will show you some simple but useful applications of the LPAR tool.

A common question in larger environments (multiple HMCs, many managed systems) is: where is a particular LPAR? This question can easily be answered with the LPAR tool, by using the command “lpar show“:

$ lpar show lpar02
NAME    ID  SERIAL     LPAR_ENV  MS    HMCS
lpar02  39  123456789  aixlinux  ms21  hmc01,hmc02
$

In addition to the name, the LPAR-ID and the serial number, the managed system, here ms21, and the associated HMCs, here hmc01 and hmc02, are also shown. You can also specify multiple LPARs and/or wildcards:

$ lpar show lpar02 lpar01
...
$ lpar show lpar*
...
$

If no argument is given, all LPARs are listed.

 

Another question that frequently arises is the status of an LPAR or multiple LPARs. Again, this can be easily answered, this time with the command “lpar status“:

$ lpar status lpar02
NAME    LPAR_ID  LPAR_ENV  STATE    PROFILE   SYNC  RMC     PROCS  PROC_UNITS  MEM   OS_VERSION
lpar02  39       aixlinux  Running  standard  0     active  1      0.7         7168  AIX 7.2 7200-03-02-1846
$

The LPAR lpar02 is Running, the profile used is standard, the RMC connection is active and the LPAR is running AIX 7.2 (TL3 SP2). The LPAR has 1 processor core, with 0.7 processing units and 7 GB RAM. The column SYNC indicates whether the current configuration is synchronized with the profile (attribute sync_curr_profile).

Of course, several LPARs or even all LPARs can be specified here.

If you want to see what the LPAR tool does in the background: for most commands you can specify the option “-v” for verbose-only. The HMC commands will then be listed, but no changes will be made to the HMC. Here are the HMC commands that are issued for the status output:

$ lpar status -v lpar02
hmc01: lssyscfg -r lpar -m ms21
hmc01: lshwres -r mem -m ms21 --level lpar
hmc01: lshwres -r proc -m ms21 --level lpar
$

 

Next, the addition of additional RAM will be shown. We start with the status of the LPAR:

$ lpar status lpar02
NAME    LPAR_ID  LPAR_ENV  STATE    PROFILE   SYNC  RMC     PROCS  PROC_UNITS  MEM   OS_VERSION
lpar02  39       aixlinux  Running  standard  0     active  1      0.7         7168  AIX 7.2 7200-03-02-1846
$

The LPAR is running and RMC is active, so a DLPAR operation should be possible. We will first check if the maximum memory size is already in use:

$ lpar lsmem lpar02
            MEMORY         MEMORY         HUGE_PAGES 
LPAR_NAME  MODE  AME  MIN   CURR  MAX   MIN  CURR  MAX
lpar02     ded   0.0  2048  7168  8192  0    0     0
$

Currently the LPAR uses 7 GB and a maximum of 8 GB are possible. Extending the memory by 1 GB (1024 MB) should be possible. We add the memory by using the command “lpar addmem“:

$ lpar addmem lpar02 1024
$

We check the success by starting the command “lpar lsmem” again:

$ lpar lsmem lpar02
           MEMORY         MEMORY         HUGE_PAGES 
LPAR_NAME  MODE  AME  MIN   CURR  MAX   MIN  CURR  MAX
lpar02     ded   0.0  2048  8192  8192  0    0     0
$

(By the way: if the current configuration is not synchronized with the current profile, attribute sync_curr_profile, then the LPAR tool also updates the profile!)

 

Virtual adapters can be listed using “lpar lsvslot“:

$ lpar lsvslot lpar02
SLOT  REQ  ADAPTER_TYPE   STATE  DATA
0     Yes  serial/server  1      remote: (any)/any connect_status=unavailable hmc=1
1     Yes  serial/server  1      remote: (any)/any connect_status=unavailable hmc=1
2     No   eth            1      PVID=123 VLANS= ETHERNET0 XXXXXXXXXXXX
6     No   vnic           -      PVID=1234 VLANS=none XXXXXXXXXXXX failover sriov/ms21-vio1/1/3/0/2700c003/2.0/2.0/20/100.0/100.0,sriov/ms21-vio2/2/1/0/27004004/2.0/2.0/10/100.0/100.0
10    No   fc/client      1      remote: ms21-vio1(1)/47 c050760XXXXX0016,c050760XXXXX0017
20    No   fc/client      1      remote: ms21-vio2(2)/25 c050760XXXXX0018,c050760XXXXX0019
21    No   scsi/client    1      remote: ms21-vio2(2)/20
$

The example shows virtual FC and SCSI adapters as well as a vNIC adapter in slot 6.

 

Finally, we’ll show how to start a console for an LPAR:

$ lpar console lpar02

Open in progress 

 Open Completed.

…

AIX Version 7

Copyright IBM Corporation, 1982, 2018.

Console login:

…

The console can be terminated with “~.“.

 

Of course, the LPAR tool can do much more.

To be continued.

 

Posted on

LPAR tool 1.4.0.1 available (including a valid test license)!

In our download area, version 1.4.0.1 of our LPAR tool, including a valid test license (valid until 31th october 2019) is available for download. The license is contained directly in the binaries, so no license key must be entered. The included trial license allows use of the LPAR tool for up to 10 HMCs, 100 managed systems and 1000 LPARs.

Posted on

LPAR tool with test license until 15th september 2019

In our download area, version 1.3.0.2 of our LPAR tool, including a valid test license (valid until 15th september 2019) is available for download. The license is contained directly in the binaries, so no license key must be entered. The included trial license allows use of the LPAR tool for up to 10 HMCs, 100 managed systems and 1000 LPARs.

Posted on

Resources of not activated LPARs and Memory Affinity

When an LPAR is shut down, resources such as processors, memory, and I/O slots are not automatically released by the LPAR. The resources remain assigned to the LPAR and are then reused on the next activation (with the current configuration). In the first part of the article Resources of not activated LPARs we had already looked at this.

(Note: In the example output, we use version 1.4 of the LPAR tool, but in all cases we show the underlying commands on the HMC command line, so you can try everything without using the LPAR tool.)

The example LPAR lpar1 was shut down, but currently still occupies 100 GB of memory:

linux $ lpar status lpar1
NAME   LPAR_ID  LPAR_ENV  STATE          PROFILE   SYNC  RMC       PROCS  PROC_UNITS  MEM     OS_VERSION
lpar1  39       aixlinux  Not Activated  standard  0     inactive  1      0.2         102400  Unknown
linux $

The following commands for the output above were executed on the corresponding HMC hmc01:

hmc01: lssyscfg -r lpar -m ms09 --filter lpar_names=lpar1
hmc01: lshwres -r mem -m ms09 --level lpar --filter lpar_names=lpar1
hmc01: lshwres -r proc -m ms09 --level lpar --filter lpar_names=lpar1

As the output shows, the LPAR lpar1 has still allocated its resources (processors, memory, I/O adapters).

In order to understand why deactivating an LPAR does not release the resources, you have to look at the “Memory Affinity Score”:

linux $ lpar lsmemopt lpar1
             LPAR_SCORE  
LPAR_NAME  CURR  PREDICTED
lpar1      100   0
linux $

HMC command line:

hmc01: lsmemopt -m ms09 -r lpar -o currscore –filter lpar_names=lpar1

The Memory Affinity Score describes how close processors and memory are, the closer the memory to the memory is, the better is the throughput to the memory. The command above indicates, with a value between 1 and 100, how big the affinity between processors and LPARs is. Our LPAR lpar1 currently has a value of 100, which means the best possible affinity of memory and processors. If the resources were freed when deactivating an LPAR, then the LPAR would lose this Memory Affinity Score. The next time you enable the LPAR, it then depends on the memory and processors available then how good the memory affinity will be then. We release the resources once:

linux $ lpar -d rmprocs lpar1 1
linux $

HMC command line:

hmc01: chhwres -m ms09 -r proc  -o r -p lpar1 --procs 1

No more score will be given, since the LPAR has no longer allocated any resources:

linux $ lpar lsmemopt lpar1
             LPAR_SCORE  
LPAR_NAME  CURR  PREDICTED
lpar1      none  none
linux $

HMC command line:

hmc01: lsmemopt -m ms09 -r lpar -o currscore –filter lpar_names=lpar1

Now we allocate resources again and look at the effect this has on memory affinity:

linux $ lpar applyprof lpar1 standard
linux $

HMC command line:

hmc01: chsyscfg -r lpar -m ms09 -o apply -p lpar1 -n standard

We again determine the Memory Affinity Score:

linux $ lpar lsmemopt lpar1
             LPAR_SCORE  
LPAR_NAME  CURR  PREDICTED
lpar1      53    0
linux $

HMC command line:

hmc01: lsmemopt -m ms09 -r lpar -o currscore –filter lpar_names=lpar1

The score is now only 53, the performance of the LPAR has become worse. Whether and how much this is noticeable, depends ultimately on the applications on the LPAR.

The fact that the resources are not released when deactivating an LPAR, thus guarantees the next time you activate (with the current configuration) the memory affinity remains the same and thus the performance should be the same.

If you release the resources of an LPAR (manually or automatically), then you have to realize that this has an effect on the LPAR if it is later activated again, because then the resources are reassigned and a worse (but possibly also a better) Memory Affinity Score can result.

Conversely, before activating a new LPAR you can also make sure that there is a good chance for a high memory affinity score for the new LPAR by releasing resources of inactive LPARs.

(Note: resource distribution can be changed and improved at runtime using the Dynamic Platform Optimizer DPO. DPO is supported as of POWER8.)

 

Posted on

Resources of not activated LPARs

When an LPAR is shutdown, resources such as processors, memory, and I/O slots are not automatically released by the LPAR. The resources remain assigned to the LPAR and are reused on the next activation (with the current configuration).

The article will show how such resources are automatically released and, if desired, how to manually release resources of an inactive LPAR.

(Note: In the example output, we use version 1.4 of the LPAR tool, but in all cases we show the underlying commands on the HMC command line, so you can try everything without using the LPAR tool.)

The example LPAR lpar1 was shut down, but currently still occupies 100 GB of memory:

linux $ lpar status lpar1
NAME   LPAR_ID  LPAR_ENV  STATE          PROFILE   SYNC  RMC       PROCS  PROC_UNITS  MEM     OS_VERSION
lpar1  39       aixlinux  Not Activated  standard  0     inactive  1      0.2         102400  Unknown
linux $

The following commands for the output above were executed on the corresponding HMC hmc01:

hmc01: lssyscfg -r lpar -m ms09 --filter lpar_names=lpar1
hmc01: lshwres -r mem -m ms09 --level lpar --filter lpar_names=lpar1
hmc01: lshwres -r proc -m ms09 --level lpar --filter lpar_names=lpar1

The resource_config attribute of an LPAR indicates whether the LPAR has currently allocated resources (resource_config=1) or not (resource_config=0):

linux $ lpar status -F resource_config lpar1
1
linux $

Or on the HMC command line:

hmc01: lssyscfg -r lpar -m ms09 --filter lpar_names=lpar1 –F resource_config

The resources allocated by an not activated LPAR can be released in 2 different ways:

  1. Automatic: The resources used are needed by another LPAR, e.g. because memory is expanded dynamically or an LPAR is activated that does not have sufficient resources. In this case, resources are automatically removed from a not activated LPAR. We will show this below with an example.
  2. Manual: The allocated resources are explicitly released by the administrator. This is also shown below in an example.

First we show an example in which resources are automatically taken away from an not activated LPAR.

The managed system ms09 currently has about 36 GB free memory:

linux $ ms lsmem ms09
NAME  INSTALLED  FIRMWARE  CONFIGURABLE  AVAIL  MEM_REGION_SIZE
ms09  786432     33792     786432        36352  256
linux $

HMC command line:

hmc01: lshwres -r mem -m ms09 --level sys

We start an LPAR (lpar2) which was configured with 100 GB of RAM. The managed system has only 36 GB of RAM and is therefore forced to take resources from inactive LPARs in order to provide the required 100 GB. We start lpar2 with the profile standard and look at the memory relations:

linux $ lpar activate -b sms -p standard lpar2
linux $

HMC command line:

hmc01: chsysstate -m ms09 -r lpar -o on -n lpar2 -b sms -f standard

Overview of the storage relations of lpar1 and lpar2:

linux $ lpar status lpar\*
NAME   LPAR_ID  LPAR_ENV  STATE          PROFILE   SYNC  RMC       PROCS  PROC_UNITS  MEM     OS_VERSION
lpar1  4        aixlinux  Not Activated  standard  0     inactive  1      0.2         60160   Unknown
lpar2  8        aixlinux  Open Firmware  standard  0     inactive  1      0.2         102400  Unknown
linux $ ms lsmem ms09
NAME  INSTALLED  FIRMWARE  CONFIGURABLE  AVAIL  MEM_REGION_SIZE
ms09  786432     35584     786432        0      256
linux $

HMC command line:

hmc01: lssyscfg -r lpar -m ms09
hmc01: lshwres -r mem -m ms09 --level lpar
hmc01: lshwres -r proc -m ms09 --level lpar
hmc01: lshwres -r mem -m ms09 --level sys

The LPAR lpar2 has 100 GB RAM, the managed system has no more free memory and the memory allocated by LPAR lpar1 has been reduced to about 60 GB. Allocated resources from non-activated LPARs are automatically released, when needed and assigned to other LPARs.

But you can of course also release the resources manually. This is also shown briefly here. We are reducing the memory of LPAR lpar1 by 20 GB:

linux $ lpar -d rmmem lpar1 20480
linux $

HMC command line:

hmc01: chhwres -m ms09 -r mem  -o r -p lpar1 -q 20480

As stated, the allocated memory has been reduced by 20 GB:

linux $ lpar status lpar\*
NAME   LPAR_ID  LPAR_ENV  STATE          PROFILE   SYNC  RMC       PROCS  PROC_UNITS  MEM     OS_VERSION
lpar1  4        aixlinux  Not Activated  standard  0     inactive  1      0.2         39680   Unknown
lpar2  8        aixlinux  Open Firmware  standard  0     inactive  1      0.2         102400  Unknown
linux $ ms lsmem ms09
NAME  INSTALLED  FIRMWARE  CONFIGURABLE  AVAIL  MEM_REGION_SIZE
ms09  786432     35584     786432        20480  256
linux $

HMC command line:

hmc01: lssyscfg -r lpar -m ms09
hmc01: lshwres -r mem -m ms09 --level lpar
hmc01: lshwres -r proc -m ms09 --level lpar
hmc01: lshwres -r mem -m ms09 --level sys

The 20 GB are immediately available to the managed system as free memory. If you remove the entire memory or all processors (or processor units), then all resources of an inactive LPAR are released:

linux $ lpar -d rmmem lpar1 39680
linux $

HMC command line:

hmc01: chhwres -m ms09 -r mem  -o r -p lpar1 -q 39680

Here are the resulting memory relations:

linux $ lpar status lpar\*
NAME   LPAR_ID  LPAR_ENV  STATE          PROFILE   SYNC  RMC       PROCS  PROC_UNITS  MEM     OS_VERSION
lpar1  4        aixlinux  Not Activated  standard  0     inactive  0      0.0         0       Unknown
lpar2  8        aixlinux  Open Firmware  standard  0     inactive  1      0.2         102400  Unknown
linux $ ms lsmem ms09
NAME        INSTALLED  FIRMWARE  CONFIGURABLE  AVAIL  MEM_REGION_SIZE
ms09  786432     31232     786432        64512  256
linux $

HMC command line:

hmc01: lssyscfg -r lpar -m ms09
hmc01: lshwres -r mem -m ms09 --level lpar
hmc01: lshwres -r proc -m ms09 --level lpar
hmc01: lshwres -r mem -m ms09 --level sys

The LPAR lpar1 now has 0 processors, 0.0 processor units and 0 MB of memory! In addition, the resource_config attribute now has the value 0, which indicates that the LPAR no longer has any resources configured!

linux $ lpar status -F resource_config lpar1
0
linux $

HMC command line:

hmc01: lssyscfg -r lpar -m ms09 --filter lpar_names=lpar1 –F resource_config

Finally, the question arises as to why you should release resources manually if they are automatically released by the managed system when needed?

We will answer this question in a second article.