Virtual I/O Server overview

Learn the concepts of the Virtual I/O Server and its primary components.

The Virtual I/O Server is software that is located in a logical partition. This software facilitates the sharing of physical I/O resources between client logical partitions within the server. The Virtual I/O Server provides virtual SCSI target, virtual fibre channel, Shared Ethernet Adapter, and PowerVM™ Active Memory™ Sharing capability to client logical partitions within the system. As a result, client logical partitions can share SCSI devices, fibre channel adapters, Ethernet adapters, and expand the amount of memory available to logical partitions using paging space devices. The Virtual I/O Server software requires that the logical partition be dedicated solely for its use.

The Virtual I/O Server is part of the PowerVM Editions hardware feature.

Using the Virtual I/O Server facilitates the following functions:

Sharing of physical resources between logical partitions on the system
Creating logical partitions without requiring additional physical I/O resources
Creating more logical partitions than there are I/O slots or physical devices available with the ability for logical partitions to have dedicated I/O, virtual I/O, or both
Maximizing use of physical resources on the system
Helping to reduce the Storage Area Network (SAN) infrastructure