virtual I/O server installation & administration

The Virtual I/O Server The Virtual I/O Server is a dedicated partition that runs a special operating system called IOS. This special type of partition has physical resources assigned to it in its HMC profile. The administrator issues server partition IOS commands to create virtual resources which present virtual LAN, virtual SCSI adapters, and virtual disk drives client partitions. The client partition’s operating systems recognize these resources as physical devices. The Virtual I/O Server is responsible for managing the interaction between the client LPAR and the physical device supporting the virtualized service. Once the administrator logs in to the Virtual I/O Server as the user padmin, he or she has access to a restricted Korn shell session. The administrator uses IOS commands to create, change, and remove these physical and virtual devices as well as to configure and manage the VIO server. Executing the help command on the VIO server command line lists the commands that are available in padmin’s restricted Korn Shell session