powervm live partition mobility in ibm pureflex

IBM

Luca CompariniIBM STG Lab Services EMEA

PowerVM Live Partition Mobility in IBM PureFlex

2© Copyright IBM Corporation 2013

Objective

At the end of this session you should have a clear understanding of:

– what is Live Partition Mobility– what are the technical requirements– what are the licensing considerations (especially IBM i)– how to execute using the PureFlex FSM

• Through the migration process• Through the validation process


External links, video & social media

HOWTOIBM i Live Partition Mobility in a multichassis IBM PureFlex System environmenthttp://www.ibm.com/developerworks/ibmi/library/i-live-partition-mobility/

VIDEOIBM i Live Partition Mobility in a multichassis IBM PureFlex System environmenthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA5zqH-Tmwo

@lucacomparini

http://www.linkedin.com/in/lucacomparini

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/ibmi/library/i-live-partition-mobility/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA5zqH-Tmwo

http://www.linkedin.com/in/lucacomparini


Definitions

Active Partition MobilityActive Partition Migration is the actual movement of a running LPAR from one physical machine to another without disrupting the operation of the OS and applications running in that LPAR.

Inactive Partition MobilityInactive Partition Migration transfers a partition that is logically ‘powered off’ (not running) from one system to another.

Suspended Partition MobilitySuspended Partition Migration transfers a partition that is suspended from one system to another.

Partition Mobility (Live or Inactive) and Partition Migration (Active or Inactive) Refer to the same feature.


Understanding Live Partition Mobility

Use Live Partition Mobility for:

– Workload consolidation– Workload balancing– Planned CEC outages for maintenance/upgrades– Impending CEC outages (e.g. hardware warning received)– Ability to move from Power7 servers to Power8 servers (when available) without an

outage. With Linux and AIX 5.3 & 6.1, you can also move from Power6 to Power7.

Reduce planned downtime by moving workloads to another server during system maintenance Rebalance processing power across servers when and where you need it


Understanding Live Partition Mobility

Live Partition Mobility is not:

– An High Availability solution– A Disaster Recovery solution

LPM is not a business continuity feature. LPM improves the serviceability and maintainability of an environment running on Power Systems servers. In other words, this feature is designed to make the IT manager's life easier, when a planned maintenance is scheduled because it is capable of reducing the downtime to zero for a planned maintenance activity.


The context: PowerVM disk access

VIOS

Client LPARGeneric SCSI Disks

SAN

FC Adapters

External storage

Virtual SCSI Model

VIOS

Client LPAR

SAN

FC Adapters

N_Port ID Virtualization

Native disks

External storage

This is relevant for LPM as for:

– Zoning– LUN-masking


The context: PowerVM LPARs management

PowerVM LPARs management is doable through:

– HMC • Originally rack servers only (no Power blades)• Now also Flex servers

– IVM• When HMC not there• Most of the cases Power Blades

– SDMC• Supported HMC and Power Blades

– FSM• Flex servers only


Live Partition Mobility – IBM i requirements

HMC 7.7.5 or higher

Firmware Levels

730_51 or later

740_40 or later

PowerVM Enterprise Edition

VIOS 2.2.1.4 or Higher

IBM i 7.1 TR4 or Higher

Software

I/OAll I/O through the VIOS

VSCSI, NPIV, VE

External Storage

Same storage to both source and destination

Power7 Hardware

Virtual Ethernet

Both source and destination on same network


Live Partition Mobility – IBM i requirements

IBM i LPAR requirements

– The logical partition must have all disks backed by physical volumes.– The logical partition cannot be activated with a partition profile which has a virtual SCSI

server adapter: can not be hosting another partition.– The logical partition cannot be activated with a partition profile which has a virtual SCSI

client adapter that is hosted by another IBM i logical partition– The logical partition must not be assigned a virtual SCSI optical or tape device or have

an NPIV attached tape device varied on.– No virtual SCSI server adapters can be dynamically added to the logical partition.– No virtual SCSI client adapters that are hosted by another IBM i logical partition can be

dynamically added to the logical partition being moved.– The logical partition must not be an alternative error logging partition.– An alternative error logging partition is a target from the HMC for error logs.– The logical partition cannot collect physical I/O statistics.– The logical partition must not be a time reference partition.– Used to synchronize time between partitions

The VIOS partitions will do this automatically as part of the migration


Live Partition Mobility – Restricted I/O mode


Understanding Restricted I/O mode

Partition attributes preventing “restricted resources”• Service partition• Virtual server is a VIOS• BSR array• Mover Service Partition (MSP)• Time Reference Partition (TRP)• Opticonnect / HSL• Physical IO / HEA• New resources target partition

Other issues leading to validation failure:• Huge pages / Incompatible LMB size• Redundant error path reporting virtual server.• Is member of failover pool• VTERM open.


Live Partition Mobility – validation phase

Checks the source and destination systems, POWER Hypervisor, Virtual I/O, Servers, and mover service partitions for active partition migration capability and compatibility

Checks that the RMC connections to the mobile partition, the source and destination Virtual I/O Servers, and the connection between the source and destination mover service partitions are established

Checks that there are no required physical adapters in the mobile partition and that there are no required virtual serial slots higher than slot 2

Checks that no client virtual SCSI disks on the mobile partition are backed by logical volumes and that no disks map to internal disks

Checks the mobile partition, its OS, and its applications for active migration capability.

Checks that the logical memory block size is the same on the source and destination systems

Checks that the mobile partition is not configured with barrier synchronization registers

Checks that the mobile partition is not configured with huge pages

Checks that the partition state is active or running

Checks that the mobile partition is not in a partition workload group

Checks the uniqueness of the mobile partition’s virtual MAC addresses

Checks that the mobile partition’s name is not already in use on the destination server

Checks the number of current active migrations vs the number of supported active migrations


Live Partition Mobility – IBM i peculiarities

During validation HMC sends a command to the partition to prepare for hibernation. Work Management has 3 exit points for suspend/resume or mobility

The first exit program to ask if it’s ok to proceed.The exit program is called again for any action required before the operation.The exit for resume is called after the partition is resumed or moved and it allows for any

necessary cleanup.

Current functions that will prevent suspend/resume:The partition is a member of an active clusterA tape resource varied on.*

Current functions that will prevent a migrationA tape resource varied on


Live Partition Mobility – Licensing considerations

Licensing

LPM is machine to machine: “Source System” to “Destination System”

Source and Destination System must be owned or leased by client’s enterprise. Thus, partition move between client machine and Service Provider machine is not valid

Client acquires/owns required processor activations on Destination System. There are no special processor activation rules or offerings with LPM, so acquire processor activations with one of current offerings

When the partition is moved, the entire image - all software in it - is moved

Passport Advantage products are subject to their "Virtualization Capacity License Counting Rules“. For reference, refer to the “IBM i” link:

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/passportadvantage/Counting_Software_licenses_using_specific_virtualization_technologies.html

ISV application owners whose product(s) use the system serial number in any part of their product's functionality will need to assess the impacts of partition mobility and implement any necessary changes, provide workarounds/temp keys, etc

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/passportadvantage/Counting_Software_licenses_using_specific_virtualization_technologies.html



Licensing a permanent partition move

Requirements are the same as if a manual migration to new system. All standard transfer terms and current transfer offerings apply, i.e.:

IBM i OS is licensed to machine serial.IBM i Entitlement Transfer offering is available if the requirements are metIBM i LPPs may be permanently transferred to new machine within the enterpriseEntitlements/Keys required No special rules for LPM permanent move



Licensing a temporary partition move

If CBU: client owns registered CBU, temporary transfers occur per CBU Ts and Cs, business as usual.

If software entitlements have been acquired on all systems, no special Ts and Cs needed: move partitions where and when needed.



Licensing a temporary partition move

If software entitlements have NOT been acquired on destination systems:

Note: The following applies to the IBM i operating system and standard set of IBM i Licensed Program Products.

Client may temporarily move their partition for up to 70 days to a destination system.

For active partition: 70-day clock starts upon the move

For inactive or suspended partition: 70-day clock start once the partition becomes active

→ warning messages are issued during the 70-day period

Requirements: Client must have purchased software entitlements on a "source system“

The source system must be equal or larger in processor group than any destination system


Live Partition Mobility – Support considerations

Support with temporary partition move

This is a Ts & Cs change, an LPM license amendment for base IBM i OS: allow temporary move to another machine since the base IBM i OS license does not allow this.

SWMA is required on destination system in order to get support. Therefore:– SWMA can be transferred, subject to standard SWMA transfer rules (which may not

be practical for temporary moves) OR– Client must have a minimum of one core of SWMA (and therefore one core of IBM i)

on the Destination System in order to get support: one core of permanent SWMA will cover temporary mobility OR

– Client runs partition without support on the destination system


What's new with VIOS 2.2.2.0 (4Q 12)

Several new functions added with VIO 2.2.2.0 specific to LPM

Up to 3x faster

New Firmware Level support matrix

Number of concurrent migrations

New pseudo device attributes like concurrency level

Specify ports using vios_fc_port_name

New error codes


New with VIOS 2.2.2.0

LPM up to 3x faster

Previous versions of code used a single-treaded process to copy memory from source to target VIO servers (Mover Service Partitions)

With VIO 2.2.2.0 there are now improvements in single session LPM performance this can accelerate mobility for a single session by up to 3X over previous releases

To see this improvement one would need a fast(er) network between source and destination VIO servers

• Etherchannel or Link Aggregate• 10 GbE

Normal network tunables could also help performance


New with VIOS 2.2.2.0 – concurrent migrations

Increased number of concurrent migrations

IBM PowerVM and the Hardware Management Console now support up to 16 concurrent LPM activities.

– 710_xxx and earlier firmware levels restricted to 4 concurrent LPM operations720_xxx and 730_xxx are restricted to 8 concurrent LPM operations740_xxx and higher can support up to 16 concurrent LPM operations

All concurrent LPM operations must have the same source and destination managed systems

Mover Service Partitions (MSP) with 1 Gb/s network adapters are restricted to a maximum of 4 concurrent LPM operations

To support more than 8 concurrent LPM operations, you must have more than one pair of VIO partitions

Systems managed with IVM support up to 4 concurrent migrations


New with VIOS 2.2.2.0 – pseudo device

New pseudo device to support LPM tuneables

The pseudo device violpm0 is created by default when VIO server version 2.2.2.0 or higher is installed

Device attributes for violpm0 can be used to control live partition mobility operations

Use normal lsdev/chdev padmin commands to query/change attributes

Example

$ lsdev –dev vioslpm0 –attr

$ chdev –dev vioslpm0 –attr cfg_msp_lpm_ops=5


New with VIOS 2.2.2.0 – vios_fc_port_name

Specify fibre channel ports using vios_fc_port_name

Run the lslparmigr command to show a list of available slot IDs for a VIOS partition

Run the migrlpar command to accomplish the following tasks:

Specify virtual slot IDs for one or more virtual adapter mappings

Validate the specified slot IDs

Note: You can specify the port name of the Fibre Channel to be used for creating Fibre Channel mapping on the source server when you are performing partition migration.

You can use the HMC command line interface to specify the port name.

List all the valid port names of the Fibre Channel by running the lsnports command.

From the list of the valid port names, specify the port name that you want to use by running the migrlpar command with the attribute vios_fc_port_name specifying the port name you want to use.


New with VIOS 2.2.2.0

The following attributes of pseudo device can be modified by using the migrlpar command:

num_active_migrations_configured

concurr_migration_perf_level

Run the following HMC command to modify the attribute values of the pseudo device, for example to set the number of active migrations to 8 run:migrlpar -o set -r lpar -m <CecName> -p <lparName> -i "num_active_migrations_configured=8“

The default value for this attribute is 4. To run the maximum number of supported partition mobility operations on the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS), this value must be set the supported maximum number.

To set the amount of resources allocated for each mobility operation to a value of 4, run the following command:migrlpar -o set -r lpar -m <CecName> -p <lparName> -i "concurr_migration_perf_level=4"


PowerVM 2.2.2.3

Performance, Resiliency, and Flexibility Improvements for PowerVM

Industrial Strength Server Virtualization

Announce 10/8/2013 GA 11/15/2013

• Shared Storage Pool Enhancements

• Mirrored pool – redundancy improvement

• Pool Shrinking Improvement - Elasticity

• Dynamic disk growth – Elasticity

• Scale improvements

• Import existing storage into SSP(lab services)

• Live Partition Mobility Performance Improvements

• vSCSI Redundancy Improvements

• Improvements in VIOS Performance Advisor PowerVM

•New advice for Fiber channel, SEA & SSP

• Enterprise Edition includes NEW PowerVP virtualization performance monitor


New with HMC 7.7.8 (November 2013)

New –-all flag added to the migrlpar command

Single command to migrate all AIX, Linux and IBM i partitions between two managed systems

There can only be a single source and single destination system specified

migrlpar –o m –m <SourceServer> -t <DestinationServer> --all

Easy command to stop migration of all AIX, Linux and IBM i partitions

migrlpar –o s –m <SourceServer> --all

IBM

Live Partition Mobilityin action


LPM in action – login to FSM


LPM in action – Manage Power Systems Resources


LPM in action – select VIO


LPM in action - select MVS link


LPM in action - verify Mover Service is on


LPM in action - select your LPAR


LPM in action - Migrate or Validate


LPM in action - Migration validation


LPM in action - Migrate or Validate

Option 1: MigrateAKA the 12 step wizard

Option 2: ValidateAKA The Fast Way


Migrate


Validate

IBM

Thank you

powervm live partition mobility in ibm pureflex

Technology

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live partition mobility

partition profile

partition mobility live

partition migration

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