IBM BladeCenter PS703 Technical Overview And Introduction

Also see for BladeCenter PS703: Service guide

Contents

174 IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and IntroductionA dual VIOS environment setup requires the creation of the two virtual servers, both of whichare set for a VIOS environment. After the virtual servers are created with the appropriateenvironment setting and physical resources assigned to support independent disk andnetwork I/O, then the VIOS operating systems can be installed.When planning for a dual VIOS environment on a blade, your hardware configuration willhave to have take into account the need for two virtual servers that both must have physicalEthernet and disk resources available to each VIOS. The following examples describe somepossible hardware configurations to support a dual VIOS environment, but are not intended tobe all-inclusive.PS703A typical basic configuration would be 8 GB of memory, a single internal disk, and the twointegrated Ethernet adapters. To support a dual VIOS environment the following additionaloptions would be required: One CIOv Fibre Channel adapter (feature codes 8240, 8241, or 8242) One CFFh Fibre Channel and Ethernet combo card (feature codes 8252 or 8271) BladeCenter MSIM adapters to accommodate additional BladeCenter switch modulesThe pair of internal Ethernet ports on the blade and Fibre Channel ports on the CFFhexpansion would be assigned to the first VIOS. The Fibre Channel ports on the CIOvexpansion card and the Ethernet ports on the CFFh combo card would be assigned to thesecond VIOS. Both VIO Servers in this example would boot from SAN. The SAS controllerand internal drive can only be owned by one VIOS and in this example would not be used.PS704A typical basic configuration would be 16 GB of memory, two internal drives, and fourintegrated Ethernet adapters. To support a dual VIOS environment the following additionaloption would be required: Two CIOv Fibre Channel adapters (feature codes 8240, 8241, or 8242)One of the two pairs of internal Ethernet ports in each half of the PS704 would be assigned toa VIOS. One CIOv expansion card in each half of the PS704 would be assigned to a VIOS.Again in this scenario both VIO Servers would be booting from SAN and the SAS controllerand two internal disks would be unused.Other variations of two CFFh Converged Network Adapters (feature code 8275) and FCoEcapable switches or other CFFh combo expansion cards with BladeCenter MSIMs andswitches could be used.These examples for the PS703 and PS704, while not inclusive, provide the basics for a dualVIOS environment. Memory requirements for additional virtual servers beyond the base orderamounts were not considered and should be evaluated prior to ordering either model.The actual steps of creating a dual VIOS will not be covered here, however the end results ofthis type of configuration performed on a PS704 are show in Figure 5-28 on page 175.