Chapter 21. AIX 6.1 configuration guide  649
Draft Document for Review March 28, 2011 12:24 pm AIX.fm
two different client partitions. Each client partition has two virtual SCSI adapters. Each client 
virtual SCSI adapter connects to a different Virtual I/O Server. The client partition uses MPIO 
to provide separate paths to the data disk. 
This configuration is very robust, but is more complicated than other configurations. It is 
necessary to set up MPIO on the client. Two Virtual I/O Servers need to be installed and 
configured. Two or more host bus adapters are needed in each Virtual I/O Server partition. 
The Virtual I/O Server is also configured for multipath I/O. The SAN LUNs are mapped as 
physical volumes, not logical volumes. 
This architecture provides protection from various component outages whether they are 
planned (such as for maintenance) or unplanned. For example, it is possible to shutdown one 
Virtual I/O Server for a code update without interrupting the client partitions. 
Even a SAN switch failure would not prevent the client partitions from getting to their data. 
Finally, by using RAID in the SAN LUNs, there is redundancy to a disk failure. Attach an FC 
Storage Subsystem to an AIX 6.1 Server.
In this scenario, since the disks are accessed through both Virtual I/O Servers concurrently, 
the reserve_policy for each disk must be set to no_reserve on both Virtual I/O Servers. 
Change the reserve_policy attribute to no_reserve using the chdev command as shown in 
Example 21-4.
Example 21-4   Change the reserve_policy attribute to no_reserve
chdev -dev hdisk2 -attr reserve_policy=no_reserve
hdisk2 changed
Use the lsdev command to make sure reserve_policy attribute is set to no_reserve as shown 
in Example 21-5. If you used the -perm parameter, the reserve_policy will be set as 
no_reserve but a reboot is needed to apply the change.
Example 21-5   reserve_policy is set as no_reserve
$ lsdev -dev hdisk2 -attr
attribute       value                  description                      user_settable
PCM             PCM/friend/otherapdisk Path Control Module              False
PR_key_value    none                   Persistant Reserve Key Value     True
algorithm       fail_over              Algorithm                        True
autorecovery    no                     Path/Ownership Autorecovery      True
clr_q           no                     Device CLEARS its Queue on error True
cntl_delay_time 0                      Controller Delay Time            True
cntl_hcheck_int 0                      Controller Health Check Interval True
dist_err_pcnt   0                      Distributed Error Percentage     True
dist_tw_width   50                     Distributed Error Sample Time    True
hcheck_cmd      inquiry                Health Check Command             True
hcheck_interval 60                     Health Check Interval            True
hcheck_mode     nonactive              Health Check Mode                True
location                               Location Label                   True
lun_id          0x0                    Logical Unit Number ID           False
max_transfer    0x40000                Maximum TRANSFER Size            True
node_name       0x20080080e51b0c90     FC Node Name                     False
pvid            none                   Physical volume identifier       False
q_err           yes                    Use QERR bit                     True
Note: If the vscsi device is in the active state, it will be necessary to add the parameter 
-perm at the end. This will update ODM and the setting will take effect on the next reboot.