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To be able to see the WWN on the SAN, after the mapping of vfc on the VIOS, you must start you client partition

Ever been confronted with wanting to setup a new AIX partition that is to boot from NPIV and the SAN guy asks you to activate the port. You may have done it with a physical HBA before, and all that was needed was to start the partition in SMS mode and the SAN “person” could go to work. With NPIV it is different - unfortunately.

First, do not forget to use

vfcmap -vadapter vfchostX -fcp fcsX 

to connect the virtual HBA (aka NPIV) to the SAN fabrics. Then, create a seperate profile (I prefer a separate one, it is optional actually) and boot the partition to the openfirmware prompt.

When you see 0> enter ioinfo and in the next menu select fcinfo. From there you can select your virtual adapters and that activates them into the fabric. Call the SAN person an tell him the first, second, etc adapter is ready and to call when he needs the next one.

Remember, if your partition is already bootable once the partition is up (and/or DRA - Dynamic Resource Allocation (was DLPAR)) and cfgmgr has been run the virtual interface is visible in the SAN fabric.

The mobile partition’s virtual Fibre Channel WWPNs must be zoned on the switch with the storage subsystem. You must include both WWPNs from each virtual Fibre Channel adapter in the zone. The WWPN on the physical adapter on the source and destination Virtual I/O Server does not have to be included in the zone.

sg247460 - IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility.pdf       page 190

Mapping virtual Fibre Channel adapters on VIOS
17.Log on to the VIOS partition.
18.To list the physical Fibre Channel adapters on the VIOS, enter the  lsnports  command.
In Example 3-24,  fcs0 is the first adapter port zoned for allocation of disks for virtual SCSI 
and  fcs1 is the second adapter port zoned for NPIV. This is planned in section 3.1, “Single 
VIOS setup using HMC” on page 20.
Example 3-24   List of physical  Fibre Channel adapter ports on VIOS
$ lsnports
name             physloc                        fabric tports aports swwpns  awwpns
fcs0             U5802.001.0087356-P1-C2-T1          1     64     64   2048    2046
fcs1             U5802.001.0087356-P1-C2-T2          1     64     64   2048    2048

19.To configure the virtual Fibre Channel adapter added via DLPAR in step 4 on page 42, enter the cfgdev command. 20.To list the virtual Fibre Channel adapters, enter:

lsdev -vpd | grep vfchost

In Example 3-25 on page 45, one virtual Fibre Channel adapter is listed with an adapter slot ID of 102 ( C102) created in step 4 on page 42 called vfchost0.

Example 3-25 List of virtual Fibre Channel adapters on the VIOS

$ lsdev -vpd | grep vfchost
  vfchost0         U8233.E8B.061AB2P-V1-C102 Virtual FC Server Adapter

To map the client virtual Fibre Channel adapter to the physical Fibre Channel adapter zoned for NPIV, enter:

vfcmap -vadapter vfchost0 -fcp fcs1

To verify the virtual Fibre Channel mapping for vfchost0, enter:

lsmap -vadapter vfchost0 -npiv

or to list all virtual Fibre Channel mapping on the VIOS, enter:

lsmap -all -npiv

If you have a dual VIOS setup, repeat step 1 on page 42 through step 21 for VIOS2. Ensure the client partition adapter IDs are unique. Note: You can map multiple client virtual Fibre Channel adapters to a physical Fibre Channel adapter port. Up to 64 client virtual Fibre Channel adapters can be active at one time per physical Fibre Channel adapter.

Example 4-16 Listing virtual Fibre Channel mapping on VIOS

$ lsmap -all -npiv
Name          Physloc                            ClntID ClntName       ClntOS
------------- ---------------------------------- ------ -------------- -------
vfchost0      U8233.E8B.10F5D0P-V2-C102              10 VirtServer1    AIX
Status: LOGGED_IN
FC name:fcs1                    FC loc code:U5802.001.RCH8497-P1-C5-T2
Ports logged in:1
Flags:a<LOGGED_IN,STRIP_MERGE>
VFC client name:fcs1            VFC client DRC:U8233.E8B.10F5D0P-V10-C22

New HMC commands: chnportlogin and lsnportlogin - Login in Virtual Fibre Channel adapters for NPIV client LPARs.

There are two new HMC (V7.7.3.0) commands that can force a client Virtual Fibre Channel adapter to log into a SAN. This should make the life of the AIX and SAN administrator easier, as they will no longer need to install AIX in order for the new VFC adapters to log into the SAN. Although there was an unsupported method* for doing this already (see links below). Nor will the SAN admins need to “blind” zone the WWPNs.

There was some indication of this in the latest VIOS FP readme: https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=0&uid=isg400000693

· Enabled SAN login from VIOS

And there was this:

IZ95569: ENABLE SAN LOGIN FROM VIOS FOR IMPROVED UABILITY

https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=isg1IZ95569

Problem summary

· Customer will be able to instruct the VIOS to login to the SAN

· for a given WWPN on a given virtual adapter to allow the

· customer to see the WWPN in SAN management tools and easing

· the task of configuring new NPIV client

· partitions.

·

Problem conclusion

· add commands to VIOS manager interface to allow the HMC to

· login, logout and query virtual adapters.

And finally this:

http://www-304.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/hmcl/power7/v7730.Readme.html#enhance7730

The new lsnportlogin and chnportlogin commands on the 7.730 HMC provide the ability to utilize the new function in the VIOS. From the Readme:

Added the chnportlogin and lsnportlogin commands.

1. The chnportlogin command allows you to perform N Port login and logout operations for virtual fibre channel client adapters that are configured in a partition or a partition profile. Use this command to help you in zoning WWPNs on a Storage Area Network (SAN). A login operation activates all inactive WWPNs, including the second WWPN in the pair assigned to each virtual fibre channel client adapter. This feature is particularly useful for Logical Partition Migration. A logout operation deactivates all WWPNs not in use. A successful login of a virtual fibre channel adapter requires that the corresponding virtual fiber channel server adapter must exist and that it must be mapped.

2. The lsnportlogin command also allows you to list WWPN login status information for virtual fibre channel client adapters configured in partitions or partition profiles.

I found a lot of this information on the IBM developerWorks PowerVM forum:

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=388796

Thanks to http://twitter.com/Kristijan for pointing me in the direction of the PowerVM forum.

Here’s an example of using the lsnportlogin command on one of my systems:

hscroot@HMC1:~>  lsnportlogin -m  770-1-Rack_D191 --filter "profile_names=normal"

lpar_name=nim1,lpar_id=3,profile_name=normal,slot_num=32,wwpn=c050760405f0000c,wwpn_status=0

lpar_name=nim1,lpar_id=3,profile_name=normal,slot_num=32,wwpn=c050760405f0000d,wwpn_status=0

lpar_name=nim1,lpar_id=3,profile_name=normal,slot_num=33,wwpn=c050760405f0000e,wwpn_status=0

lpar_name=nim1,lpar_id=3,profile_name=normal,slot_num=33,wwpn=c050760405f0000f,wwpn_status=0

lpar_name=nim1,lpar_id=3,profile_name=normal,slot_num=30,wwpn=c050760405f00000,wwpn_status=0

lpar_name=nim1,lpar_id=3,profile_name=normal,slot_num=30,wwpn=c050760405f00001,wwpn_status=0

lpar_name=nim1,lpar_id=3,profile_name=normal,slot_num=31,wwpn=c050760405f00002,wwpn_status=0

lpar_name=nim1,lpar_id=3,profile_name=normal,slot_num=31,wwpn=c050760405f00003,wwpn_status=0

lpar_name=aix01adm,lpar_id=4,profile_name=normal,slot_num=32,wwpn=c050760405f00004,wwpn_status=0

lpar_name=aix01adm,lpar_id=4,profile_name=normal,slot_num=32,wwpn=c050760405f00005,wwpn_status=0

lpar_name=aix01adm,lpar_id=4,profile_name=normal,slot_num=33,wwpn=c050760405f00006,wwpn_status=0

lpar_name=aix01adm,lpar_id=4,profile_name=normal,slot_num=33,wwpn=c050760405f00007,wwpn_status=0

lpar_name=aix01adm,lpar_id=4,profile_name=normal,slot_num=30,wwpn=c050760405f00008,wwpn_status=0

lpar_name=aix01adm,lpar_id=4,profile_name=normal,slot_num=30,wwpn=c050760405f00009,wwpn_status=0

lpar_name=aix01adm,lpar_id=4,profile_name=normal,slot_num=31,wwpn=c050760405f0000a,wwpn_status=0

lpar_name=aix01adm,lpar_id=4,profile_name=normal,slot_num=31,wwpn=c050760405f0000b,wwpn_status=0

            Descriptions of selected command attributes:

                 wwpn_status

                      The WWPN status.  Possible values are:

                      0 - WWPN is not activated

                      1 - WWPN is activated

                      2 - WWPN status is unknown

chnportlogin -o {login | logout} -m managed-system
{-p partition-name | --id partition-ID} [-n profile-name]
[-w wait-time] [-d detail-level] [-v] [--help] 

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/display/virtualization/vfclogin