7.6.2. Configuration of Physical SR-IOV Ports

The physical ports of the SR-IOV adapters can also be displayed with the command “ms lssriov“, by using the option “-p” (physical ports):

$ ms lssriov -p ms03
PHYS_PORT_LOC                STATE  LABEL  TYPE  ADAPTER PPORT  USED  MAX  CONN_SPEED  MTU
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C11-T1  1      -  ethc  1       0      0     20   10000       1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C11-T2  1      -     ethc  1       1      0     20   10000       1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C11-T3  0      -      eth   1       2      0     4    0           1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C11-T4  1      -    eth   1       3      0     4    1000        1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C6-T1   1      -  ethc  2       0      0     20   10000       1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C6-T2   1      -      ethc  2       1      0     20   10000       1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C6-T3   0      -      eth   2       2      0     4    0           1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C6-T4   1      -    eth   2       3      0     4    1000        1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C4-T1   1      -     ethc  3       0      0     20   10000       1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C4-T2   1      -      ethc  3       1      0     20   10000       1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C4-T3   0      -      eth   3       2      0     4    0           1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C4-T4   0      -      eth   3       3      0     4    0           1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C12-T1  1      -     ethc  4       0      0     20   10000       1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C12-T2  1      -      ethc  4       1      0     20   10000       1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C12-T3  0      -      eth   4       2      0     4    0           1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C12-T4  0      -      eth   4       3      0     4    0           1500
$

If a physical port has a link, this can be seen by the column STATE (value 1) and on by the column CONN_SPEED (Mb/s). E.g. the port P1-C11-T1 (adapter ID 1, port ID 0) has a link with a speed of 10 Gb/s (10,000 Mb/s).

A number of attributes can be configured for each physical port. Among other things, the speed (conn_speed), flow control and the MTU size (max_recv_packet_size) can be configured. The configurable attributes are listed and briefly described in the online help:

$ ms help chsriov
USAGE:
   ms [-h <hmc>] chsriov [-v] <ms> {<slot_id>|<physloc> {dedicated|shared} | {<adapter_id> <phys_port_id>|<physloc>} <attributes>} [<attributes> ...]
 
DESCRIPTION:
 
Switches an SR-IOV adapter in a managed system either to dedicated or shared mode,
or sets attributes for an SR-IOV physical port.
An adapter can be specified either by the slot-ID or a unique suffix of the physical
location code.
A physical port can be specified either by the adapter-ID and physical port-ID or
a unque suffix of the physical location code of the port.
 
Attributes when switching an adapter to shared mode:
   adapter_id - 1-32, default: assign next available adapter ID
 
Attributes for an SR-IOV physical port:
   conn_speed - ethernet speed
      auto : autonegotation
      10 : 10 Mbps
      100 : 100 Mbps
      1000 : 1 Gbps
      10000 : 10 Gbps
      40000 : 40 Gbps
      100000 : 100 Gbps
   max_recv_packet_size - MTU
      1500 - 1500 byts
      9000 - 9000 bytes (jumbo frames)
   phys_port_label - label for the physical port
      1-16 characters
      none - to clear the label
   phys_port_sub_label - sublabel for the physical port
      1-8 characters
      none - to clear the sublabel
   recv_flow_control
      0 - disable
      1 - enable
   trans_flow_control
      0 - disable
      1 - enable
   veb_mode
      0 - disable virtual ethernet bridge mode
      1 - enable virtual ethernet bridge mode
   vepa_mode
      0 - disable virtual ethernet port aggregator mode
      1 - enable virtual ethernet port aggregator mode
   (see the IBM documentation for additional attributes)
 

$

The possibility to provide a label (phys_port_label) for the physical ports is very useful. The label is any character string (maximum 16 characters) that the administrator can assign; it can be used, for example, to identify the purpose of the connected network.

In our example, the physical ports P1-C11-T1 and P1-C6-T1 both go to the management LAN. We therefore assign the character string Mgmt as the label and set the MTU size to 9000 (jumbo frames). The “ms chsriov” command is used again to set the attributes, whereby the adapter ID and the port ID of the physical port must be specified for physical ports. Alternatively, a unique suffix of the physical location code of the port can also be specified:

$ ms chsriov ms03 1 0 phys_port_label=Mgmt max_recv_packet_size=9000
$ ms chsriov ms03 P1-C6-T1 phys_port_label=Mgmt max_recv_packet_size=9000
$

Changing the attributes has an immediate effect. Not all attributes can be changed if a physical port is in use and logical ports have already been created.

After changing the attributes, the physical ports look like this:

$ ms lssriov -p ms03
PHYS_PORT_LOC                STATE  LABEL  TYPE  ADAPTER PPORT  USED  MAX  CONN_SPEED  MTU
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C11-T1  1      Mgmt  ethc  1       0      0     20   10000       9000
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C11-T2  1      -     ethc  1       1      0     20   10000       1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C11-T3  0      -      eth   1       2      0     4    0           1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C11-T4  1      -    eth   1       3      0     4    1000        1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C6-T1   1      Mgmt ethc  2       0      0     20   10000       9000
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C6-T2   1      -     ethc  2       1      0     20   10000       1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C6-T3   0      -      eth   2       2      0     4    0           1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C6-T4   1      -    eth   2       3      0     4    1000        1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C4-T1   1      -     ethc  3       0      0     20   10000       1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C4-T2   1      -      ethc  3       1      0     20   10000       1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C4-T3   0      -      eth   3       2      0     4    0           1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C4-T4   0      -      eth   3       3      0     4    0           1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C12-T1  1      -     ethc  4       0      0     20   10000       1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C12-T2  1      -      ethc  4       1      0     20   10000       1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C12-T3  0      -      eth   4       2      0     4    0           1500
U78AA.001.VYRGU0Q-P1-C12-T4  0      -      eth   4       3      0     4    0           1500
$

It is advisable to provide all physical ports used with an appropriate label. For reasons of redundancy, each network should be connected twice, as for the Mgmt network above.