HP-UX vPars and Integrity VM V6.3 Administrator Guide

To set the kernel tunable, enter the following:
# kctune dlpi_max_ub_promisc=16
8.4.4 Configuring VLANs on physical switches
When communicating with a remote VSP or guest over the network, you might need to configure
VLANs on the physical switches. The physical switch ports that are used must be configured
specifically to allow the relevant VLANs. If the remote host is VLAN aware, you must configure
VLAN interfaces on the host for the relevant VLANs. Use the nwmgr command to configure VLANs
on a remote HP-UX host. For example, to configure a VLAN interface with VLAN ID 100 on lan4,
enter the following command:
# nwmgr –a –S vlan –A vlanid=100,ppa=4
NOTE: When OLRAD suspend operation of card is initiated on a physical NIC backed to a
vswitch, then this event on a physical NIC initiates link down on all the vNICs associated with that
vswitch and resume initates link up on all the vNICs of that vswitch.
However, the deletion of physical NIC backed to a vswitch returns data critical warnings and must
be exercised with caution. For more information about OLRAD, see Chapter 11 (page 163).
8.5 Direct I/O networking
The direct I/O networking feature supported in vPars and Integrity VM Version 6 allows
administrators to assign network ports directly to a vPar or VM guest, giving the vPar or VM guest
direct and exclusive access to the port on the NIC. NIC ports that are configured to be used for
direct I/O are not shareable and cannot be used to back a vswitch. Before a NIC port or card
can be assigned to a vPar or VM guest, you must add it to a resource pool named DIO pool. DIO
pool refers to a pool of direct I/O network capable devices that can be assigned to vPars or VMs.
NICs that support direct I/O networking on HP Integrity BL8x0c i2/i4, Superdome 2 i2/i4, and
rx2800 i2/i4 servers provide either FLA or DLA. The function in FLA refers to a single function on
a multi-function NIC. A function can be single port on a multi-port card. Some cards support multiple
functions on a single port. The device in DLA refers to the entire multi-port NIC (all functions of the
NIC). If a card supports FLA, each function (port) can be individually added or removed from the
DIO pool. FLA functions (ports) can be individually assigned to vPars or VM guests. Each FLA
function of the same card can be used by different vPars or VM guests at the same time.
If a NIC supports only DLA, the entire card is added or removed from the DIO pool. You cannot
assign a single port or function of a DLA card to the DIO pool. After a DLA card is added to the
DIO pool, individual functions can be assigned to vPars or VM guests. To assign different functions
of a DLA card to multiple vPars or VM guests, the vPar or VM guest cannot be configured to ‘reserve’
resources (resources_reserved setting). However, if multiple vPars or VM guests are assigned
functions of the same DLA card (no reserved resources), only one VM can be booted at a time.
For example,
• If you assign all four ports or functions of an FLA card to the DIO pool, you can assign port1
to vPar1, port2 to vPar2, and boot both vPar1 and vPar2 at the same time.
• If you assign a DLA NIC with four ports to the DIO pool, you can assign port1 to vm1 and
port2 to vm2 only if resources_reserved is set to false. You can boot either vm1 or vm2.
The direct I/O networking functionality provides the following:
• 10 GB Ethernet network functions.
• Support for FlexNICs created by HP Virtual Connect.
• Near-native network performance in vPar environments.
• Improved performance over AVIO networking in VM environments.
• CPU OL* operations with vPars.
8.5 Direct I/O networking 127