AIX 6 Update

Edit: The replay link worked, the materials did not, I imagine a search engine may be able to find them if you really want them. The chart link does not work either.

Originally posted December 22, 2009 on AIXchange

Another great Central Region Virtual users group meeting was held on Dec. 10. IBM’s Jay Kruemcke covered what’s new in AIX 6 since the release of TL4. If you missed the meeting, listen to the replay here and get the presentation materials here.

In response to a question about which features worked on which processors and versions of AIX, the organizers also posted this handy chart that details the requirements for enabling features like Live Partition Mobility, WPARs, virtual memory, etc.

Here are some other highlights:

* Workload Partition (WPAR) SAN support–According to Kruemcke, WPARs are able to own SAN devices, allowing WPAR administrators to directly manage their own storage, thus reducing administrative effort and increasing flexibility. So instead of running the lspv command inside of a WPAR and having nothing come back, you can map LUNs directly to your WPAR and use them as you would any other hdisk.

* N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) for Blade–The NPIV capabilities that have existed on our standalone servers are now available for our blade servers. I found this definition online: “NPIV enables a single HBA port to register several unique WWNs with the fabric, each of which can be assigned to an individual virtual machine.” I tend to think of NPIV the same way I think of virtual Ethernet, where multiple logical devices use the same physical device.

* Fibre Channel over Ethernet Fibre Channel over Converged Ethernet (or commonly referred to as FC over Ethernet)–Jay says AIX will provide a native 10GB solution, and VIOS will facilitate sharing of this adapter.

* LPAR Mobility Phase 2–Says Jay: “VIOS will preserve slots and device names across Live Partition Mobility operation.” Right now when you do a Live Partition Mobility operation, the virtual adapters get renumbered on the destination machine. If you move an LPAR back and forth a few times you can quickly end up needing to re-document which virtual devices are mapped to what.

* VIOS Usability Lightweight backup–This new VIOS option saves off just the customized data (such as device mappings and other pertinent ODM info) in a XML file. This allows backups to process much more quickly. Instead of saving the entire VIOS operating system, you’re only saving what you need in order to rebuild your environment. The rest can be restored from install media.

Learn much more by listening to the presentation and the Q&A. Although keeping up with the changes in the operating system can be challenge, these free user group events are another relatively simple way to broaden your knowledge and invest in your career.