Edit: You had better not still be running this code anywhere.
Originally posted May 27, 2008 on AIXchange
A VIOS update is now available. “Fix Pack 11.1 provides a migration path for existing Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) installations. Applying this package will upgrade the VIOS to the latest level, V1.5.2.1.”
Read about all of the enhancements on the IBM Web site.
Be sure to note:
“In order to take full advantage of all the function available in the VIOS (including SEA bandwidth apportioning.), it is necessary to be at system firmware level SF235 or later. SF230_120 is the minimum level of SF230 firmware supported by the Virtual I/O Server. If a system firmware update is necessary, it is recommended that the firmware be updated before upgrading the VIOS to V1.5.2.1.”
Here’s a sampling of what you will find on the Web site. Many more items are listed there that you can read about by selecting the above link.
• Added support for Bandwidth apportioning for Shared Ethernet Adapter.
• Added support for a Shared Ethernet Adapter accounting tool (new CLI command “seastat”).
• Added virtual switch support to Partition Mobility commands.
• Added CLI command for new SEA command “seastat”
• Improved topas reporting for SEA, EtherChannel and VLAN.
• Added new VLAN attribute called vlan_priority to VLAN pseudo device.
• Added LoopBack Device Support.
Another important thing to keep in mind according to the IBM Web site:
“If you are updating from an ioslevel prior to 1.3.0.1, the updateios command may indicate several failures (i.e. missing requisites) during fix pack installation. These messages are expected. Proceed with the update if you are prompted to “Continue with the installation [y/n]”.
Here’s the list of failures that I saw in my /home/padmin/install.log file when I ran the update:
SELECTED FILESETS: The following is a list of filesets that you asked to install. They cannot be installed until all of their requisite filesets are also installed. See subsequent lists for details of requisites.
bos.ecc_client.rte 5.3.8.0 # Electronic Customer Care Run…
bos.esagent 6.5.8.0 # Electronic Service Agent
bos.sysmgt.nim.spot 5.3.8.0 # Network Install Manager – SPOT
bos.sysmgt.trcgui_samp 5.3.0.30 # Trace Report GUI
ifor_ls.msg.en_US.java.gui 5.3.7.0 # LUM Java GUI Messages – U.S….
rsct.msg.EN_US.basic.rte 2.4.0.0 # RSCT Basic Msgs – U.S. Engli…
rsct.msg.en_US.basic.rte 2.4.0.0 # RSCT Basic Msgs – U.S. English
MISSING REQUISITES: The following filesets are required by one or more of the selected filesets listed above. They are not currently installed and could not be found on the installation media.
bos.sysmgt.nim.spot 5.3.0.0 # Base Level Fileset
bos.sysmgt.trcgui_samp 5.3.0.0 # Base Level Fileset
ifor_ls.java.gui 5.3.0.0 # Base Level Fileset
lwi.runtime 5.3.8.0 # Base Level Fileset
rsct.basic.rte 2.4.0.0 # Base Level Fileset
From the IBM documentation:
VIOS V1.5.2 provides several key enhancements in the area of POWER Virtualization.
- VIOS network bandwidth apportioning. The bandwidth apportioning feature for the Shared Ethernet Adapter (SEA), allows the VIOS to give a higher priority to some types of packets. In accordance with the IEEE 802.1q specification, VIOS administrators can instruct the SEA to inspect bridged VLAN-tagged traffic for the VLAN priority field in the VLAN header. The 3-bit VLAN priority field allows each individual packet to be prioritized with a value from 0 to 7 to distinguish more important traffic from less important traffic. More important traffic is sent faster and uses more VIOS bandwidth than less important traffic.
- Virtual I/O Server Command Line Interface (CLI) was enhanced to support Image Management commands. The CLI is in a unique position to have access to virtual disks and their contents. Users will be able to make a copy of virtual disks and install virtual disks using the Image Management command, cpbd. This command will allow other programs to create and copy virtual disk images.
- The Virtual I/O Server runs on Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) networks, therefore users can configure IPv6 type IP addresses.
- The updates to the Systems Planning and Deployment tool include updates to ensure none of the existing VIOS mappings are changed during the deployment step.
For me it was a smooth update. I downloaded the code to my machine (it was a pretty big download; you might also think about ordering the updates on CD depending on your network connection), ran updateios -commit and then updateios -accept -install -dev /mnt. (Since I was doing this over an nfs connection, I had mounted the remote filesystem that I needed to /mnt.)
When it was done, and I rebooted the VIOS and saw this output:
$ioslevel
1.5.2.1-FP-11.1
I’ll keep an eye on it and notify you of any issues.