VIO Server MPIO Disk Configuration Standards
This document describes the standards for configuring MPIO disks on a
VIO Server to be shared out to client LPAR's. A single standard has been
developed for use in standalone, High Availability, and Disaster
Recovery environments. This MPIO naming standard provides the mechanism
to assign enterprise wide unique names to all MPIO virtual disks and
will eliminate naming conflicts in the event of a manual or automated
failover.
Two distinct mechanisms are used for configuring the MPIO disks on
the VIO server. This is because in addition to data storage, the client
LPARS are booting from disks being shared by the VIO server. The disks
being used for data storage will follow a configuration standard based
on the "Resource Group" concept being used to define all other aspects
of the client LPAR. However the boot disk configuration requires a
different mechanism.
The remainder of this configuration standard discusses the mechanism
for naming virtual disks on the VIO server using the "mkvdev" command.
A representation of the "mkvdev" command may appear as follows:
mkvdev -dev HDISK -vadapter VHOST -vdev VIRTUALNAME
The purpose of this document is to provide a standard for defining
the VIRTUALNAME as shown in the above representation.
The VIRTUALNAME for system boot disks shall include the following
information:
- Disk Usage Identifier
- System Name
- MPIO disk number
The VIRTUALNAME for all other disks shall include the following
information:
- Disk Usage Identifier
- Resource Group Name
- Volume Group ID
- MPIO disk number
The "Disk Usage Identifier" is a single capital letter that shows how
the disk will be used by the client LPAR such as for storage of the AIX
operating system, paging, data storage volume group, etc.
Disk Usage Identifier
- A: AIX operating system
- L: Linux operating system
- P: System paging
- V: Application volume group
The "Resource Group Name" can be
determined using the following defined standards document:
rgstand.shtml
The "Volume Group ID" can be
determined using the following defined standards document:
vgstand.shtml
The MPIO disk number shall be a 3 digit number take from the hdisk as
it appears on the VIO server. For example, the 3 digit disk number for
"hdisk1" will be "001", for "hdisk11" the 3 digit disk number is "011",
etc.
The MPIO virtual disk name for system boot disks shall consist of
exactly 14 characters with the following structure:
Disk Usage + SystemName + hdisk number
1 char + 3 char + 3 char
Disk Usage
Identifier
|
System Name
|
hdisk
Name
|
Virtual
Disk Name
|
|
A (aix)
|
mdcapora01
|
hdisk33
|
Amdcapora01033
|
|
A (aix)
|
ddcaaora03
|
hdisk245
|
Addcapora03245
|
|
L (linux)
|
mdclpadm01
|
hdisk175
|
Lmdclpadm01175
|
The MPIO virtual disk name for all other disks shall also consist of
exactly 14 characters with the following structure:
Disk Usage + ApplicationCode + Environment + Function + Company + Sequence ID + VG Sequence ID + hdisk number
1 char + 3 char + 1 char + 1 char + 2 char + 1 char + 2 char + 3 char
As an example, a resource group named "egaaptu0", may have multiple
associated hdisks being provided from the VIO Server:
Disk Usage
Identifier
|
RG Name
Component
|
VG Sequence
Identifier
|
hdisk
Number
|
Virtual
Disk Name
|
|
P
|
pagaptu1
|
21
|
hdisk334
|
Ppagaptu121334
|
|
V
|
egaaptu1
|
22
|
hdisk335
|
Vegaaptu122335
|
|
V
|
egaaptu1
|
22
|
hdisk336
|
Vegaaptu122336
|
|
V
|
egaaptu1
|
22
|
hdisk337
|
Vegaaptu122337
|
|
V
|
egaaptu1
|
22
|
hdisk338
|
Vegaaptu122338
|
|
