Configuring storage on the managed system by using the Integrated Virtualization Manager

You can assign storage to partitions in the following ways:

• You can assign physical volumes directly to the partition. (A physical volume is an individual logical unit that is identified by a logical unit number (LUN). A physical volume can be a hard disk or a logical device on a storage area network (SAN).)
• You can add physical volumes or files to a storage pool, create virtual disks from the storage capacity of the storage pool, and assign the virtual disks to partitions. Virtual disks allow you to specify more precisely the amount of storage that you assign to partitions. You can assign storage to logical partitions without regard to the actual capacities of the physical volumes or files that make up the storage pool.
• You can add a pair of worldwide port names (WWPN) to a client partition. You then can assign a physical fibre channel port to the WWPN pair so that the partition can communicate with storage devices in a storage area network (SAN). If the system meets the following requirements, you can configure this type of storage resource:
  • The system supports the use of virtual fibre channel adapters.
  • The system has a physical fibre channel adapter installed that supports N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) ports and the physical ports have the required fabric support for NPIV.

Generally, physical volumes and virtual disks that you assign to a partition display as physical disk devices in the operating system interface of the partition. However, in IBM i, physical volumes display as virtual logical resources rather than as physical disk devices with logical unit numbers.

Consider creating a storage pool in addition to the default rootvg storage pool for regular data storage, and then assign the new storage pool as the default. You can then add more physical volumes to a storage pool, create virtual disks from a storage pool, and assign these virtual disks to other partitions.

If you plan to assign physical volumes directly to partitions, you do not need to do anything with the physical volumes. You can assign the physical volumes to the partitions when you create the partitions.

To configure storage on the managed system, complete the following steps: