The Integrated Virtualization Manager is a browser-based system management interface for Virtual I/O Server that allows you to create and manage AIX® and Linux® logical partitions on a single IBM® eServer™ p5 or IBM System p5™ server or Linux logical partitions on a single IBM eServer OpenPower™ server. The Integrated Virtualization Manager is supported only on select IBM eServer p5, IBM System p5, and IBM eServer OpenPower server models.
Virtual I/O Server is software that provides virtual storage and shared Ethernet resources to the other logical partitions on the managed system. Virtual I/O Server is not a general purpose operating system that can run applications. Virtual I/O Server is installed on a logical partition in the place of a general purpose operating system, and is used solely to provide virtual I/O resources to other logical partitions with general purpose operating systems. You use the Integrated Virtualization Manager to specify to Virtual I/O Server how these resources are assigned to the other logical partitions.
To use the Integrated Virtualization Manager, you must first install Virtual I/O Server on an unpartitioned server. Virtual I/O Server automatically creates a logical partition for itself, which is called the management partition for the managed system. The management partition is the Virtual I/O Server logical partition that controls all of the physical I/O resources on the managed system. After you install Virtual I/O Server, you can configure a physical Ethernet adapter on the server so that you can connect to the Integrated Virtualization Manager from a computer with a web browser.
In this figure, you can see Virtual I/O Server in its own logical partition, and the AIX and Linux logical partitions that are managed by the Virtual I/O Server logical partition. The browser on the PC connects to the Integrated Virtualization Manager interface over a network, and you can use the Integrated Virtualization Manager to create and manage the logical partitions on the server.
The Integrated Virtualization Manager does not have a command line interface that you can launch from the GUI. Instead, you can start a terminal session on the Virtual I/O Server logical partition from your PC. You can start the terminal session using either ssh (if you have installed OpenSSL and Portable OpenSSH software on the management partition) or telnet. You can then use the mkvt command on the Virtual I/O Server command line interface. The mkvt command starts a virtual terminal session on any of the logical partitions on the managed system.
For more information about partitioning using the Integrated Virtualization Manager, see Partitioning with the Integrated Virtualization Manager.