FSPM and Virtual I/O Server

Oracle FS Path Manager (FSPM) supports Virtual I/O Servers.

When you install FSPM on Virtual I/O Server, multi-pathed Oracle FS System LUNs that are mapped to the Virtual I/⁠O Server can be virtualized as SCSI devices for access by client partitions in the same way as other disks. FSPM is installed on the Virtual I/O Server not the client partition.

If your system has more than one Virtual I/⁠O Server, FSPM can be installed on each server. The Oracle FS System LUNs can be mapped to all the Virtual I/⁠O Servers. Each server exposes a virtual view of each LUN to the client partitions. In this configuration, the client partitions can access the LUNs through multiple Virtual I/⁠O Servers—that is, the client partitions have multiple virtual paths to each LUN. To manage these multiple paths to the virtual LUNs, AIX in the client partitions uses Multipath I/⁠O (MPIO) with the default Path Control Module (PCM) in failover mode. FSPM cannot be used in the client partitions to manage these virtual paths.

With multiple Virtual I/⁠O Servers, MPIO with the default PCM is used in the clients to manage the paths to the virtual disks presented by FSPM in the Virtual I/⁠O Servers.

Since FSPM is installed on the Virtual I/⁠O Servers, the Virtual I/⁠O Servers show up as hosts in theOracle FS System, the LUNs must be mapped to those Virtual I/⁠O Server hosts. In a system with multiple Virtual I/⁠O Servers, the LUNs should be mapped to all the Virtual I/⁠O Servers on the system. The normal Virtual I/⁠O Server facilities are used to make the LUNs visible from the Virtual I/⁠O Servers to the individual client partitions.

Client partitions can use the Virtual Fibre Channel adapters or the iSCSI Inititator to directly access LUNs on the Oracle FS System. In this case, FSPM is installed in the client partitions to manage direct connections to the Oracle FS System and not on the Virtual I/O Server.