Specifications

This topic defines the range of configuration possibilities, including the minimum number of resources needed and the maximum number of resources allowed.

To activate the Virtual I/O Server, the PowerVM™ Editions (or Advanced POWER™ Virtualization) hardware feature is required. A logical partition with enough resources to share with other logical partitions is required. The following is a list of minimum hardware requirements that must be available to create the Virtual I/O Server.

Table 1. Resources that are required
Resource	Requirement
Hardware Management Console or Integrated Virtualization Manager	The HMC or Integrated Virtualization Manager is required to create the logical partition and assign resources.
Storage adapter	The server logical partition needs at least one storage adapter.
Physical disk	The disk must be at least 30 GB. This disk can be shared.
Ethernet adapter	If you want to route network traffic from virtual Ethernet adapters to a Shared Ethernet Adapter, you need an Ethernet adapter.
Memory	For POWER6™ processor-based systems, at least 768 MB of memory is required. For POWER5™ processor-based systems, at least 512 MB of memory is required.
Processor	At least 0.1 processor is required.

The following table defines the limitations for storage management.

Table 2. Limitations for storage management
Category	Limit
Volume groups	4096 per system
Physical volumes	1024 per volume group
Physical partitions	1024 per volume group
Logical volumes	1024 per volume group
Logical partitions	No limit