About this Blog
This is a technical IBM i blog focusing on virtualization and high availability topics for Power Systems. Some examples of subjects I intent to post on are:
- SR-IOV virtualization of ethernet adapters,
- Using VIOS for IBM i virtualization,
- The differences between vSCSI and NPIV Fiber Channel connections.
- Why Live Partition Mobility might be the right solution for you
- Why you should be using external SAN storage rather than internal disks
- High Availability and Disaster Recovery solutions
About Me
My name is Vincent Greene. I am currently an IT Management Consultant with the IBM Technology Services (formerly known as Lab Services) for the North America IBM i delivery practice. Most of my work involves migrations and technology refreshes of IBM i lpars in virtualized (PowerVM/VIOS) environments on SAN Storage (IBM DS8000 and Spectrum Virtualize).
My career with IBM midrange systems has been pretty diverse, from System/32 to Power 10, involving both IBM i and AIX development (RPG II to Java, PERL, and Python) and systems administration.
Why write this blog?
I spend most of my time working with customers to migrate systems and implement various virtualization technologies, which means I also spend a lot of time searching for information on these technologies. As a former AIX systems administrator, I know that when my search for "IBM i SR-IOV" returns results that are almost exclusively referring to AIX, that most of that information is relevant to IBM i as well.
Unfortunately, before I spent so much time working with Power systems on AIX, I would have been hesitant to use resources that were so clearly focused on a different operating system.
The problem gets worse when working with VIOS (Virtual I/O Systems), which is built on an AIX base. It is very different and intimidating for an IBM i administrator, which sometimes leads to advice like "use IBM i hosting IBM i for virtualization (NWS)" . I think that is bad advice, for many reasons that I will write about here.
I want to build that bridge between the Power resources focused on AIX and the value that can be provided for IBM i customers. I don't intend to repeat all the information that is available for AIX. Instead, I will describe the IBM i differences, then point to the existing resources that cover the common ground such as HMC and VIOS commands.