Adding virtual NICs

You can add virtual NICs to a partition by using the Hardware Management Console (HMC).

Before you add a virtual NIC, ensure that your system meets the following prerequisites, if the client partition is running:
  • The Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) that hosts the virtual NIC is running with an active Resource Monitoring and Control (RMC) connection.
  • The client partition has an active RMC connection.
Ensure that your system meets the following prerequisite, if the client partition is shut down:
  • The Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) that hosts the virtual NIC is running with an active RMC connection or is shut down.
To add virtual NICs by using an HMC, complete the following steps:
  1. Choose one of the following navigation options depending on the interface type of the Hardware Management Console (HMC):
    • If you are using an HMC Enhanced interface, complete the following steps:
      1. In the navigation pane, expand Systems Management > Servers.
      2. Select the server on which the logical partition is located.
      3. Select Manage by using one of the following options:
        • Click the menu next to the partition name and select Manage. The Manage page opens.
        • In the work pane, select Manage. The Manage page opens.
    • If you are using an HMC Enhanced+ interface, complete the following steps:
      1. In the navigation pane, click the Resources icon The icon represents the Resources function of the HMC.
      2. Click All Systems. The All Systems page is displayed.
      3. In the work pane, select a system and click Actions > View System Partitions. In the Partitions page, you can view all the partitions that belong to the system.
      4. In the work pane, select the partition for which you want to view or change the properties and capabilities and click Actions > View Partition Properties. The Properties page is displayed. You can view and change the properties that are listed under the Properties area.
  2. In the Properties pane, click Virtual NICs. The Virtual NIC page opens.
  3. Click Add Virtual NIC. The Add Virtual NIC - Dedicated page opens with the SR-IOV physical ports listed in a table.
  4. Click Add Entry or Remove Entry to add or to remove backing devices for the Virtual NIC.
    Note: The vNIC Auto Priority Failover list is displayed when you add the second backing device entry. If you select Enabled from the vNIC Auto Priority Failover list, the hypervisor automatically fails over to the operational backing device that has the highest failover priority. Alternatively, if you select Disabled, the hypervisor does not take any action even if another operational backing device has a higher failover priority.
  5. To configure each backing device entry, complete the following actions:
    1. Select the SR-IOV physical port on which you want to create the logical port to support the virtual NIC.
      Note: You must assign a different SR-IOV physical port for each backing device.
    2. Select the hosting partition.
    3. Specify the logical port minimum capacity.
      Note: The capacity of the logical port must be a percentage of the capacity of the SR-IOV physical port. If you do not specify a value, the HMC assigns the minimum capacity of the Ethernet logical port. The failover priority for the backing device must be in the range of 1 - 100, where 1 indicates the highest priority and 100 indicates the lowest priority. If you do not specify any value, the default priority value 50 is assigned to the backing device.
    4. Specify the failover priority for the backing device.
  6. Click Advanced Virtual NIC Settings to configure additional settings for the virtual NIC, such as virtual NIC adapter ID, MAC address settings, and the VLAN ID settings.
  7. Click OK. The virtual NIC is added to the partition.
Parent topic: Managing virtual NICs on a logical partition


Last updated: Tue, June 12, 2018