Configure Virtual Tape on VIO Server ( Map physical tape to AIX Client)

You may need to backup AIX client data to tape, the VIO allow mapping physical tapes starting with VIOS v2.1.0.10-FP20.1.

But it has some limitation on the type of tapes that can be mapped (Check IBM documentation)

on the VIO server you can check wether the tape can be mapped by issuing the following command

VIO_SERVER$lsdev -type tape

this will list the available tapes on the system.

VIO_SERVER$lsdev -type tape4vtd

this will give you the list of tape that can be maped.

VIO_SERVER$mkvdev -vdev rmt0 -vadapater vhost0

vhost0 is the VIRTUAL SCSI adapter mapped to VIO Client LPAR

 

Easy way to get Virtual SCSI mapping from VIO Client

Sometimes you need to get the VIO mapping from the client side.

the easiest way is to run the below command:

root@client_lpar: / # echo “cvai” | kdb | grep vscsi 

read vscsi_scsi_ptrs OK, ptr = 0xF1000000C01A83C0
vscsi0     0x000007 0x0000000000 0x0                VIO_SRV1->vhost0