New devices are usually added automatically on a virtual I/O server. If, for example, a virtual I/O adapter is created, the associated device is automatically configured in the operating system of the virtual I/O server. A manual run of the config manager, as with AIX LPARs, is usually not necessary.

In case a new device has not been configured automatically, this can be done manually using the command “vios cfgdev” (configure device). The config manager cfgmgr of the underlying AIX is ultimately started.

When the command is started with the virtual I/O server as the only argument, all existing adapters are checked for new devices and are configured in the operating system if necessary:

$ vios cfgdev ms13-vio1
$

However, an (existing) device can also be specified as an additional argument; the check for new devices then only takes place in the subtree starting from the specified device. Under certain circumstances, this can be significantly faster on larger systems with an extremely large number of devices:

$ vios cfgdev ms13-vio1 fcs4
$

Here, too, the (existing) device can be specified as a unique suffix of a physical location code.