Which storage pools are currently available on a virtual I/O server and which type these pools have, can be displayed using the command “vios lssp” (list storage pools):

$ vios lssp ms05-vio1
POOL    TYPE    SIZE       FREE       ALLOC      BDS
rootvg  LVPOOL  558.00 GB   68.00 GB  512.00 MB  0
$

Since a logical volume storage pool is ultimately a volume group on the virtual I/O server, there is always at least the storage pool rootvg. In addition to the type, the size, free space and the current number of backing devices (BDS column) in the storage pool are displayed.

Free physical volumes are required for a new logical volume storage pool. Which physical volumes a virtual I/O server has, can be displayed using “vios lspv” (list physical volumes):

$ vios lspv ms05-vio1
PVNAME  PVID              VGNAME  PVSTATE
hdisk0  00ecafe53ce0a4be  rootvg  active
hdisk1  00ecafe57511a6a3  rootvg  active
hdisk2  none              None    -
hdisk3  none              None    -
hdisk4  none              None    -
hdisk5  none              None    -
hdisk6  none              None    -
$

However, some of the physical volumes are clearly already in use (hdisk0 and hdisk1), with other physical volumes this cannot be clearly identified from the output. With the help of the “-a” (available) option, only those physical volumes can be displayed, that are available for VSCSI. Physical volumes that are already in use, due to mapping, can be identified via the VTDS column:

$ vios lspv -a ms05-vio1
PVNAME  PVID  SIZE       VTDS
hdisk2  none   10.00 GB  -
hdisk3  none   10.00 GB  -
hdisk4  none   10.00 GB  vtscsi4
hdisk6  none   10.00 GB  -
$

Of the physical volumes hdisk2 to hdisk6, the physical volume hdisk4 is already used by a VSCSI mapping (vtscsi0) and the hdisk5 no longer appears in the output (since it is used as a paging device for AMS).

The physical volume hdisk2 is still available and will be used for our first logical volume storage pool. A storage pool can be created using the command “vios mksp” (make storage pool). At least one physical volume must be specified for a logical volume storage pool:

$ vios mksp ms05-vio1 pool1 hdisk2
hmc01: viosvrcmd -m ms05 -p ms05-vio1 -c \"mksp pool1 hdisk2\"
ERROR: remote HMC command returned an error (1)
StdErr: HSCL2970 The IOServer command has failed because of the following reason: 
StdErr: 
StdErr: 
StdErr: Some error messages may contain invalid information
StdErr: for the Virtual I/O Server environment.
StdErr: 
StdErr: 0516-358 mkvg: Illegal name; the prefix of the name is reserved.
StdErr: Choose a different name.
StdErr: rc=1
$

The attempt to create a storage pool with the name pool1 failed, however. The prefix “pool” is reserved, so pool1 is not a valid name and can therefore not be used. A new attempt with the name testpool is successful:

$ vios mksp ms05-vio1 testpool hdisk2
$

The new storage pool can be displayed with the command “vios lssp”:

$ vios lssp ms05-vio1
POOL      TYPE    SIZE       FREE       ALLOC      BDS
rootvg    LVPOOL  558.00 GB   68.00 GB  512.00 MB  0
testpool  LVPOOL    9.93 GB    9.93 GB    8.00 MB  0
$

The PP size of the underlying volume group is displayed in the column ALLOC.