Thanks for the feedback.

I'll work up a howto pointing out how easy it is to create two routes between the lpar and HMC - and thus - how to prevent it! A single checkbox on the HMC that will do that. 

A little more checking - and the real experts recommend verifying the IBM.ManagedNode resource on the HMC (or VIO acting as HMC aka IVM - Integrated Virtualization Manager)

Note: getting some nice keywords in here!

No communication between HMC and VIOS? What level of HMC and VIOS are you running? What does lparstat say? On VIOS and root, run the following command. (Note, you will get one error as the first line is not a manageable object, but a header.)

# for i in `lsrsrc`
> do
> lsrsrc $i
> done

This will tell you all the partition knows, and all the VIOS knows. In particular, you are wanting to be sure that the classes IBM.Host, IBM.ManagedNode, and IBM.ManagementServer. At least, ina an IVM environment (no HMC) those are the ones I am most interested while on the VIOS.

On an LPAR (which a VIO partition is when a HMC is used to configure the system) you need to make sure that the IBM.ManagementServer is filled in with addresses that are not blocked by a firewall - as these generally go over a so-called public network (by definition, the closed/private network is for HMC/ServiceProcessor exclusively - and not for DLPAR control.)

For example: x200 is my IVM (vios, but acting as an HMC would) and x202 is a partition:
Resource Persistent Attributes for "IBM.ManagementServer"
resource 1:
        Name             = "192.168.129.200"
        Hostname         = "192.168.129.200"
        ManagerType      = "HMC"
        LocalHostname    = "192.168.129.202"
        ClusterTM        = "9078-160"
        ClusterSNum      = ""
        ActivePeerDomain = ""
        NodeNameList     = {"x202"}


Note that even here, the LPAR x202, is saying that X200 is an HMC, even though it is a LPAR.

regarding itself: x200 says:
Resource Persistent Attributes for "IBM.ManagementServer"
resource 1:
        Name             = "192.168.129.200"
        Hostname         = "192.168.129.200"
        ManagerType      = "HMC"
        LocalHostname    = "192.168.129.200"
        ClusterTM        = "9078-160"
        ClusterSNum      = ""
        ActivePeerDomain = ""
        NodeNameList     = {"x200"}


LocalHostname == Hostname

So, this is the bit for DLPAR communication debugging.

Excellent - although I am challanged by your comment that we did not cover this in the class. Maybe I failed to stress the ability of VIOS to host the cd device.

To correct this 'problem':

At the command level, the basic command for creating a virtual target device is:
mkvdev. The command to remove a virtual target device is rmvdev.

Valid storage devices are logical volumes, physical volumes, and optical devices (i.e. cd0 aka dvd device).

You need to know whcih vhost adapter a client is goinf to use, so I shall just say X and Y for moving a virtual device between two (logical) partitions.

As padmin (not root),

$ mkvdev -vdev /dev/cd0 -vadapter vhostX [-dev vtcd0]

The above assigns the cd0 to the partitionX which will see it as /dev/cd0 (assuming no other cd devices have been defined in the ODM).

Verify with:

$ lsmap -vadapter vhostX

$ rmvdev -vtd vtcd0  # maybe a force argument will be needed as well, if the device is allocated to an active partition.

$ mkvdev -vdev /dev/cd0 -vadapter vhostY [-dev vtcd0]

Try this out - if I am missing any steps, let me know! Thanks for your continuing feedback.

Dear Michael

thank you for your reply.
I will just try to summarize what you said in my own words to try and find out whether I understand:
In the wonderful world of my p590 there exists a physical i/o device named "Storage Controller". I am quite sure this is the cdrom (CD/DVD). It is currently "owned" by virtual i/o server number one as a desired object.
I removed it with rmdev -dlR pci4 from the virtual i/o server to try out my AIX install from CD/DVD, but it did not work. More specifically: no device was found. I made sure to put it back again via cfgmgr (and the magic worked).
One of the things you're suggesting is that I create a virtual i/o adapter that contains the cdrom on virtual i/o server number one and then make it available to my new server for a fresh install of AIX 5.3. Since the cdrom is a physical i/o device I haven't got the faintest idea how to do this (it certainly wasn't covered in the course you gave me at IBM).
Thanks in advance for your help.

I have created a new logical partition on the p590 of a customer and would like to install AIX on it. The p590 has a dvd-writer attached to it via a SCSI cable. Practically all lpars make use of it, including the virtual i/o servers. I am quite sure I have added this device as a desired physical i/o. I have put the first CD of the AIX package into the drive and started up the new lpar. I would like to boot from CD/DVD so as to be able to install AIX, but the lpar does not detect this device. Could anyone help me with this little inconvenience? Thanks in advance.