IBM BladeCenter PS703 Technical Overview And Introduction

Also see for BladeCenter PS703: Service guide

Contents

Chapter 3. Virtualization 93Table 3-1 Configured memory-to-default LMB sizePhysical memory assigned to partitions are in increments of LMB.The POWER Hypervisor provides the following types of virtual I/O adapters: Virtual SCSI Virtual Ethernet Virtual Fibre Channel Virtual (TTY) consoleVirtual I/O adapters are defined by system administrators during logical partition definition.Configuration information for the adapters is presented to the partition operating system.Virtual SCSIThe POWER Hypervisor provides a virtual SCSI mechanism for virtualization of storagedevices. Virtual SCSI allows secure communications between a logical partition and the IOServer (VIOS). The storage virtualization is accomplished by pairing two adapters: a virtualSCSI server adapter on the VIOS, and a virtual SCSI client adapter on IBM i, Linux, or AIXpartitions. The combination of Virtual SCSI and VIOS provides the opportunity to sharephysical disk adapters in a flexible and reliable manner.Virtual EthernetThe POWER Hypervisor provides an IEEE 802.1Q VLAN-style virtual Ethernet switch thatallows partitions on the same server to use fast and secure communication without any needfor physical connection.Virtual Ethernet support starts with AIX Version 5.3, or the appropriate level of Linuxsupporting virtual Ethernet devices (see 3.4.10, “Supported PowerVM features by operatingsystem” on page 117). The virtual Ethernet is part of the base system configuration.Virtual Ethernet has the following major features: The virtual Ethernet adapters can be used for both IPv4 and IPv6 communication and cantransmit packets up to 65408 bytes in size. Therefore, the maximum MTU for thecorresponding interface can be up to 65394 (65408 minus 14 for the header) in thenon-VLAN case and to 65390 (65408 minus 14, minus 4) if VLAN tagging is used. The POWER Hypervisor presents itself to partitions as a virtual 802.1Q compliant switch.The maximum number of VLANs is 4096. Virtual Ethernet adapters can be configured aseither untagged or tagged (following the IEEE 802.1Q VLAN standard). An AIX partition supports 256 virtual Ethernet adapters for each logical partition. Besidesa default port VLAN ID, the number of additional VLAN ID values that can be assigned perVirtual Ethernet adapter is 20, which implies that each Virtual Ethernet adapter can beused to access 21 virtual networks.Configurable memory in the system Default logical memory blockLess than 4 GB 16 MBGreater than 4 GB up to 8 GB 32 MBGreater than 8 GB up to 16 GB 64 MBGreater than 16 GB up to 32 GB 128 MBGreater than 32 GB 256 MB