Configuring NPIV in VIO

Using NPIV setup in the VIO, physical fibre channel adapters can be shared across multiple LPARs. Traditionally we have been assigning physical adapters
to AIX/Linux LPARs, and soon we'd run out of adapters if the requirement to build more LPAR arises.

Below are the steps to configure NPIV:

Minimum Requirements to setup NPIV:

- POWER6
- HMC 7.3.4 or later
- VIOS 2.1.2
- AIX 5.3 TL9, or later / AIX 6.1 TL2 or later
- NPIV enabled Switch
- System Firmware level of EL340_039
- 8 Gigabit PCI Express Dual Port Fibre Channel Adapter (Feature Code 5735)

Steps:

1.) Modify LPAR Profile:
a. Assign the 8 Gigabit PCI Express Dual Port Fibre Channel Adapter to the VIO servers.b. Create virtual "server" fibre channel adapters in VIO and assign adapter ID. Specify the client partition and adapter ID. I would suggest to give the
adapter ID as same as the VIO servers adapter ID.c. Create virtual "client" fibre channel adapters in AIX LPARs and specify VIO partition and adapter ID as the connecting partition.


2.) Activate VIO partition and execute "lsnports" to see the physical adapter assigned and it supports NPIV. You should also a virtual adapter "vfcshost#"
which you created in step 1-b.

For this example, let's assume that fcs0 and fcs1 are the dual physical fibre adapters and vfchost0 and vfchost1 are the virtual adapter.

3.) Execute the following command to create the mapping in the VIO server.
vfcmap -vadapter vfchost0 -fcp fcs0 vfcmap -vadapter vfchost1 -fcp fcs1

4.) To verify the mapping, do "lsmap -npiv" and check the mapping. This command will be useful when there is a problem in the NPIV setup.

5.) Now Activate the client LPAR and you will two fibre channel adapters (fcs0 and fcs1). Use
the WWPN (same as WWN but it is logical ID) of the client
LPARs to assign LUNs.

6.) Inform Storage admins to enable NPIV in the SAN switch ports where the VIO server is connected.

You can use the same physical adapters to create multiple virtual client fibre channel adapters and thus they are shared across LPARs.