virtual switch Archive - PowerCampus 01

Despite SR-IOV and vNIC, Shared Ethernet is still the most widely used virtualization solution, when it comes to virtualizing Ethernet. The POWER Hypervisor implements internal virtual IEEE802.1q compatible network switches, which, in conjunction with so-called shared Ethernet adapters or SEAs for short, take over the connection to external networks. The shared Ethernet adapters are implemented in software as a layer 2 bridge by the virtual I/O server.

As shown in figure 8.2, a shared Ethernet adapter can have several so-called trunking adapters. The SEA shown has the 3 trunking adapters ent8, ent9 and ent10, all 3 of which are connected to the virtual switch with the name ETHMGMT. In the case shown, all trunking adapters support VLAN tagging. In addition to the port VLAN IDs (PVIDs), the 3 trunking adapters also have additional VLANs via VLAN tagging. In addition to the connection to the virtual switch via the trunking adapter, the SEA also has a connection to an external network by the physical network adapter (ent0). Network packets from client LPARs to external systems are forwarded to the SEA via one of the trunking adapters and then to the external network via the associated physical network adapter. Network packets from external systems to client LPARs are forwarded by the SEA via the trunking adapter with the correct VLAN to the virtual switch, which then forwards the packets to the client LPAR.

In the simplest case, a SEA consists of just one trunking adapter. A SEA can have up to 16 trunking adapters, whereby each of the trunking adapters can have up to 20 additional VLANs in addition to the port VLAN ID.

Which SEAs already exist on a virtual I/O server can be found out with the help of the command “vios lssea” (list SEAs):

$ vios lssea ms05-vio1
                                       TIMES   TIMES    TIMES    BRIDGE 
NAME   HA_MODE  PRIORITY  STATE       PRIMARY  BACKUP  FLIPFLOP  MODE
ent33  Sharing  1         PRIMARY_SH  1        1       0         Partial
ent34  Sharing  1         PRIMARY_SH  1        1       0         Partial
$

Some basic information is displayed for each SEA, such as the HA mode (see later), the priority of the SEA, as well as information on how often the SEA was already primary or backup.

8.5.1. SEA without VLAN Tagging

8.5.2. SEA with VLAN Tagging

8.5.3. Some SEA Attributes

8.5.4. Configuring an IP Address on a SEA

8.5.5. Adding and Removing VLANs (not HA)

8.5.6. Adding and Removing Trunking Adapters (not HA)

8.5.7. Removing a Shared Ethernet Adapter (not HA)

8.5.8. HA-SEA with Failover

8.5.9. Creating SEAs with HA Mode (HA-SEA)

8.5.10. HA-Modes auto and standby

8.5.11. Adding and Removing VLANs (HA-SEA)

8.5.12. Adding and Removing Trunking Adapters (HA-SEA)

8.5.13. Removing HA-SEAs

8.5.14. HA-SEA with Load Sharing

8.5.15. Creation of SEAs with Load Sharing

8.5.16. Adding and Removing VLANs (Load Sharing)

8.5.17. Adding and Removing Trunking Adapters (Load Sharing)

8.5.18. Changing the HA Mode between Failover and Load Sharing

8.5.19. Deleting SEAs (Load Sharing)

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