This topic describes different virtual devices.
Integrated Linux® and Windows® servers feature virtual devices of various types. These devices can be confusing to a user who is new to the integrated xSeries® solutions products. Windows and Linux are essentially “guest” operating systems that support and manage the hardware that they interface to. As part of server consolidation, the integrated servers provide the capability to share hardware with i5/OS™, thus reducing the amount of hardware required, and the extent of the hardware footprint that needs to be managed. The Integrated xSeries hardware utilizes virtual disk drives, virtual optical, virtual tape devices, and Virtual Ethernet LAN.
The integration software supports the following virtual devices:
A virtual disk is not optional for integrated servers. Although xSeries machines normally come with local hard drives, when an xSeries server is used with the Integrated xSeries Adapter, any installed hard drives or hard drive controllers must be removed.
A virtual disk is referred to as NWSSTG or a network server storage space. These objects are actually files in the Integrated File System (IFS) that appear to the Linux or Windows operating system as hard drives. There can be a total of 32 of these virtual disk drive objects created and linked to each integrated Linux or Windows server.
The installation command creates two virtual drives, which are referred to as the system drive and the install drive. We discuss these drives in more detail later.
All virtual drives for all the integrated servers on a particular iSeries™ are stored in the QFPNWSSTG directory, which is in the root directory of the Integrated File System. These devices implicitly utilize iSeries storage management, and thus data is spread across all the configured disks. Additionally, these drives are protected by iSeries RAID-5 if it has been configured, and therefore do not benefit from Windows or Linux software RAID.
The virtual optical function provides the capability for integrated Linux servers to utilize i5/OS optical drives. The drives need to be varied on in i5/OS, and locked in Linux using the ixsdev command. You use an iSeries optical drive, acting as a virtual optical drive, to install Red Hat Linux. You can also use a virtual optical drive to install additional Red Hat Linux software.
The virtual tape function provides the capability for integrated Linux servers to access i5/OS tape drives. The i5/OS tape drive must be varied off in i5/OS and locked in Linux using the ixsdev command. It is important to verify that the tape drive is supported for use with Linux integration support. A list of supported devices is maintained on the integrated xSeries solutions Web site.
As part of the installation, there is a line description and TCP/IP interface automatically created for the Point-to-Point Virtual Ethernet LAN. It is used to enable i5/OS to communicate with Linux to provide administrative control over the Linux server. The Point-to-Point Virtual Ethernet LAN is intended to be a secure connection that does not get routed to the external network.
This function allows communication internally with other integrated servers or iSeries partitions (i5/OS, AIX® and POWER Linux) using 1 Gbps LAN connections. This technology could be used to offload the external network or to provide a fast, secure connection to a server or partition.