How to install ESXi 5.1

1. Check the server hardware you are installing ESXi 5 onto is supported and on the VMware HCL.
2. Login to the VMware license portal to check/upgrade/buy your vSphere licenses.

3. Minimum system requirements for installing ESXi.

Supported server platform

• For a list of supported platforms, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.

64-bit Processor

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• ESXi 5.1 will install and run only on servers with 64-bit x86 CPUs.
• ESXi 5.1 requires a host machine with at least two cores.
• ESXi 5.1 supports only LAHF and SAHF CPU instructions.
• ESXi 5.1 requires the NX/XD bit to be enabled for the CPU in the BIOS.
• ESXi 5.1 supports a broad range of x64 multicore processors. For a complete list of supported processors, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.

RAM

• 2GB RAM minimum
• Provide at least 8GB of RAM to take full advantage of ESXi 5.1 features and run virtual machines in typical production environments.

Hardware Virtualization Support

• To support 64-bit virtual machines, support for hardware virtualization (Intel VT-x or AMD RVI) must be enabled on x64 CPUs.
• To determine whether your server has 64-bit VMware support, download the CPU Identification Utility from vmware.com.
• Network Adapters
• One or more Gigabit or 10Gb Ethernet controllers. For a list of supported network adapter models, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.

SCSI Adapter, Fibre Channel Adapter or Internal RAID Controller

Any combination of one or more of the following controllers:

• Basic SCSI controllers. Adaptec Ultra-160 or Ultra-320, LSI Logic Fusion-MPT, or most NCR/Symbios SCSI.
• RAID controllers. Dell PERC (Adaptec RAID or LSI MegaRAID), HP Smart Array RAID, or IBM (Adaptec) ServeRAID controllers.

Installation and Storage

• SCSI disk or a local, non-network, RAID LUN with unpartitioned space for the virtual machines.
• For Serial ATA (SATA), a disk connected through supported SAS controllers or supported on-board SATA controllers. SATA disks will be considered remote, not local. These disks will not be used as a scratch partition by default because they are seen as remote. Note: You cannot connect a SATA CD-ROM device to a virtual machine on an ESXi 5.1 host. To use the SATA CD-ROM device, you must use IDE emulation mode.
• Supported storage system:  ESXi 5.1 supports installing on and booting from these storage systems:

• SATA disk drives. SATA disk drives connected behind supported SAS controllers or supported on-board SATA controllers.

1. LSI1068E (LSISAS3442E)
2. LSI1068 (SAS 5)
3. IBM ServeRAID 8K SAS controller 
4. Smart Array P400/256 controller 
5. Dell PERC 5.0.1 controller

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• SATA disk drives. Supported on-board SATA include:

• Intel ICH9
• NVIDIA MCP55
• ServerWorks HT1000

Note: ESXi does not support using local, internal SATA drives on the host server to create VMFS datastores that are shared across multiple ESXi hosts.

• Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) disk drives supported for installing ESXi 5.1 and for storing virtual machines on VMFS partitions.
• Dedicated SAN disk on Fibre Channel or iSCSI
• For a list of USB devices supported for installing ESXi 5.1, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.
• You can install and boot ESXi from an FCoE LUN using VMware software FCoE adapters and network adapters with FCoE offload capabilities. See the vSphere Storage documentation for information about installing and booting ESXi with software FCoE.

4. Download the VMware ESXi 5 ISO file from the VMware download area.

5. Burn the ESXi 5 ISO to a CD.

6. Disconnect all Fibre Channel connections (if any) and boot the server from the CD.

7. Select "ESXi-5.1 Installer"

8. When ready to install press "Enter"

How to verify Etherchannel or Link Aggregate status

Use the entstat command to get the aggregate statistics of all of the adapters in the EtherChannel.

For example, entstat ent3 will display the aggregate statistics of ent3. Adding the -d flag will also display the statistics of each adapter individually. For example, typing entstat -d ent3 will show you the aggregate statistics of the EtherChannel as well as the statistics of each individual adapter in the EtherChannel.

Note: In the General Statistics section, the number shown in Adapter Reset Count is the number of failovers. In EtherChannel backup, coming back to the main EtherChannel from the backup adapter is not counted as a failover. Only failing over from the main channel to the backup is counted.

In the Number of Adapters field, the backup adapter is counted in the number displayed.

How to list Etherchannels or Link Aggregations

Use this procedure to list EtherChannels or Link Aggregations.

1. On the command line, type smitty etherchannel.
2. Select List All EtherChannels / Link Aggregations and press Enter.

How to modify Etherchannel on AIX

Use this procedure to detach the interface and make changes on AIX® 5.2 with 5200-01 and earlier.

1. Type smitty chinet and select the interface belonging to your EtherChannel. Change the Current STATE attribute to detach, and press Enter.
2. On the command line type, smitty etherchannel.
3. Select Change / Show Characteristics of an EtherChannel / Link Aggregation and press Enter.
4. Select the EtherChannel or Link Aggregation that you want to modify.
5. Modify the attributes you want to change in your EtherChannel or Link Aggregation and press Enter.
6. Fill in the necessary fields and press Enter.

How to configure Etherchannel in AIX

Use this procedure to configure an EtherChannel.

1)Type smitty etherchannel at the command line.

2)Select Add an EtherChannel / Link Aggregation from the list and press Enter.

3)Select the primary Ethernet adapters that you want on your EtherChannel and press Enter. If you are planning to use EtherChannel backup, do not select the adapter that you plan to use for the backup at this point. The EtherChannel backup option is available in AIX® 5.2 and later.

Note: The Available Network Adapters displays all Ethernet adapters. If you select an Ethernet adapter that is already being used (has an interface defined), you will get an error message. You first need to detach this interface if you want to use it.

Enter the information in the fields according to the following guidelines:

Parent Adapter: Provides information of an EtherChannel's parent device (for example, when an EtherChannel belongs to a Shared Ethernet Adapter). This field displays a value of NONE if the EtherChannel is not contained within another adapter (the default). If the EtherChannel is contained within another adapter, this field displays the parent adapter's name (for example, ent6). This field is informational only and cannot be modified. The parent adapter option is available in AIX 5.3 and later.

EtherChannel / Link Aggregation Adapters: You should see all primary adapters that you are using in your EtherChannel. You selected these adapters in the previous step.

Enable Alternate Address: This field is optional. Setting this to yes will enable you to specify a MAC address that you want the EtherChannel to use. If you set this option to no, the EtherChannel will use the MAC address of the first adapter.

Alternate Address: If you set Enable Alternate Address to yes, specify the MAC address that you want to use here. The address you specify must start with 0x and be a 12-digit hexadecimal address (for example, 0x001122334455).

Enable Gigabit Ethernet Jumbo Frames: This field is optional. In order to use this, your switch must support jumbo frames. This will only work with a Standard Ethernet (en) interface, not an IEEE 802.3 (et) interface. Set this to yes if you want to enable it.

Mode: You can choose from the following modes:

standard: In this mode the EtherChannel uses an algorithm to choose which adapter it will send the packets out on. The algorithm consists of taking a data value, dividing it by the number of adapters in the EtherChannel, and using the remainder (using the modulus operator) to identify the outgoing link. The Hash Mode value determines which data value is fed into this algorithm (see the Hash Mode attribute for an explanation of the different hash modes). For example, if the Hash Mode is standard, it will use the packet's destination IP address. If this is 10.10.10.11 and there are 2 adapters in the EtherChannel, (1 / 2) = 0 with remainder 1, so the second adapter is used (the adapters are numbered starting from 0). The adapters are numbered in the order they are listed in the SMIT menu. This is the default operation mode.

round_robin: In this mode the EtherChannel will rotate through the adapters, giving each adapter one packet before repeating. The packets may be sent out in a slightly different order than they were given to the EtherChannel, but it will make the best use of its bandwidth. It is an invalid combination to select this mode with a Hash Mode other than default. If you choose the round-robin mode, leave the Hash Mode value as default.

netif_backup: This option is available only in AIX 5.1 and AIX 4.3.3. In this mode, the EtherChannel will activate only one adapter at a time. The intention is that the adapters are plugged into different Ethernet switches, each of which is capable of getting to any other machine on the subnet or network. When a problem is detected with the direct connection (or optionally through the inability to ping a machine), the EtherChannel will deactivate the current adapter and activate a backup adapter. This mode is the only one that makes use of the Internet Address to Ping, Number of Retries, and Retry Timeout fields.

Network Interface Backup Mode does not exist as an explicit mode in AIX 5.2 and later. To enable Network Interface Backup Mode in AIX 5.2 and later, you can configure multiple adapters in the primary EtherChannel and a backup adapter.

8023ad: This options enables the use of the IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) for automatic link aggregation.

Hash Mode: Choose from the following hash modes, which will determine the data value that will be used by the algorithm to determine the outgoing adapter:
default: The destination IP address of the packet is used to determine the outgoing adapter. For non-IP traffic (such as ARP), the last byte of the destination MAC address is used to do the calculation. This mode guarantees packets are sent out over the EtherChannel in the order they were received, but it may not make full use of the bandwidth.

src_port: The source UDP or TCP port value of the packet is used to determine the outgoing adapter. If the packet is not UDP or TCP traffic, the last byte of the destination IP address will be used. If the packet is not IP traffic, the last byte of the destination MAC address will be used.

dst_port: The destination UDP or TCP port value of the packet is used to determine the outgoing adapter. If the packet is not UDP or TCP traffic, the last byte of the destination IP will be used. If the packet is not IP traffic, the last byte of the destination MAC address is used.

src_dst_port: The source and destination UDP or TCP port values of the packet is used to determine the outgoing adapter (specifically, the source and destination ports are added and then divided by two before being fed into the algorithm). If the packet is not UDP or TCP traffic, the last byte of the destination IP is used. If the packet is not IP traffic, the last byte of the destination MAC address will be used. This mode can give good packet distribution in most situations, both for clients and servers.

Note: It is an invalid combination to select a Hash Mode other than default with a Mode of round_robin.


Backup Adapter: This field is optional. Enter the adapter that you want to use as your EtherChannel backup.

Internet Address to Ping: This field is optional and only takes effect if you are running Network Interface Backup mode or if you have one or more adapters in the EtherChannel and a backup adapter. The EtherChannel will ping the IP address or host name that you specify here. If the EtherChannel is unable to ping this address for the number of times specified in the Number of Retries field and in the intervals specified in the Retry Timeout field, the EtherChannel will switch adapters.

Number of Retries: Enter the number of ping response failures that are allowed before the EtherChannel switches adapters. The default is three. This field is optional and valid only if you have set an Internet Address to Ping.

Retry Timeout: Enter the number of seconds between the times when the EtherChannel will ping the Internet Address to Ping. The default is one second. This field is optional and valid only if you have set an Internet Address to Ping.

5)Press Enter after changing the desired fields to create the EtherChannel.

6)Configure IP over the newly-created EtherChannel device by typing smitty chinet at the command line.

7)Select your new EtherChannel interface from the list.

8)Fill in all of the required fields and press Enter.

How to map disk to lpar from VIOS

Please use below command to present disk from VIOS to lpar

mkvdev -vdev hdisk48 -vadapter vhost11 -dev vdlg732_datavg

What is PowerVM in AIX

What is PowerVM ?

Licensed software/firmware feature which enables IBM virtualization technology on IBM POWER systems.
Available on Power5, Power6 and Power7 Systems
Allows AIX 5L V5.3 or later and Linux LPARs to run without physical adapters.

It is available in the following 3 editions
1. IBM PowerVM Express Edition
2. IBM PowerVM Standard Edition
3. IBM PowerVM Enterprise Edition

Virtual I/O server is available as part of the PowerVM Editions (formarley known as Advanced POWER Virtualization) feature.

Virtual I/O Server facilitates:

1. Sharing of physical resources between LPARs on the system.
2. Creating LPARS without requiring additional physical resources like Network Adapter, HBA, SCSI Adapter.
3. Creating more LPARs than there are I/O slots or physical devices.
4. Maximizing use of phyiscal resources on the system