Exploiting IBM AIX Workload Partitions

Chapter 5. Workload partition rootvg support 93

5.2 WPAR system rootvg creation

System rootvg shared or non-shared WPARs are easily created with the mkwpar command or

with SMIT (smitty mkwpar).

A detached (private copy of /usr and /opt file systems) system rootvg WPAR is created with

the mkwpar command with the “-l” flag, or with a specification file (refer to Table 5-2 on

page 94).

Table 5-1 The mkwpar command with the -l flag and the specification file attributes

We create a shared rootvg WPAR named wparm91 with the rootvg based on disk hdisk0

(virtual SCSI disk), and another disk hdisk4 (MPIO DS4K Array disk) with network details, as

shown in Example 5-1.

Example 5-1 Creating shared system rootvg WPAR from the command line

mkwpar -n wparm91 -D devname=hdisk4 rootvg=yes -D devname=hdisk0 -N interface=en0

address=172.16.20.90 netmask=255.255.252 .0 -I rtdest=0 rtgateway=172.16.20.1

Creating workload partition's rootvg. Please wait...

mkwpar: Creating file systems...

/

/admin

/home

/opt

/proc

/tmp

/usr

/var

……Lines were removed…..

Finished populating scratch file systems.

Workload partition wparm91 created successfully.

mkwpar: 0960-390 To start the workload partition, execute the following as root:

startwpar [-v]

wparm91

Flag/attribute Description/value

-l This flag creates private and writable versions of

the /usr and /opt file systems.

rootvgwpar The value is “yes” for a rootvg WPAR or “no” for

non-rootvg WPAR.

privateusr The value is “yes” for a WPAR dedicated /usr file

system or “no” for a shared /usr file system with

the global environment.

Disk space: When you create a detached system rootvg WPAR, you must consider the

size of the file systems from the global environment for the hdisk rootvg sizing.

If the allocated disk for the rootvg is smaller than the current size of the file systems from

the global environment, the following mkwpar error message appears:

mkwpar: 0960-351 Failed to create the <corresponding file system>

94 Exploiting IBM AIX Workload Partitions

The mkwpar command accepts many input parameters when a new WPAR is created. You can

set parameters, such as logical volume management policy, mount directories, resource

control settings, and user customization script, and allocate disks and adapters. If you do not

provide all needed parameters to the mkwpar command, you can modify the created WPAR

configuration with the chwpar command.

Table 5-2 shows the important flags for the mkwpar command.

Table 5-2 Important mkwpar flags

Flag Description

-a Automatically resolve erroneous/conflicting

settings.

-B Device or path name of savewpar or mksysb

backup image.

-c Flag as checkpointable.

-e Get specification data from an existing WPAR.

-f Path to input specification file.

-l Create private, writable versions of /usr and /opt.

-L Logical volume management policy (image_data,

shrink, ignore_lvs, and ignore_maps).

-n WPAR name.

-N Network settings (interface, address, netmask,

broadcast, address6, and prefixlen).

-o Path to output specification file.

-O Overwrite an existing volume group on the

specified disks for a rootvg WPAR.

-p Preserve file system data from the named mount

group.

-r Copy global network name resolution

configuration into the WPAR.

-R Resource control settings (active, rset, CPU,

memory, procVirtMem, totalVirtMem,

shares_CPU, shares_memory, totalProcesses,

totalThreads, totalPTYs, totalLargePages,

pct_msgIDs, pct_semIDs, pct_shmIDs, and

pct_pinMem).

-S Configures the security settings of a WPAR

(secfile and privs[+|-]).

-X Configures the exported kernel extensions (kext,

exportfile, local, and major).

-w Only write specification file (do not create).

-C Create a Versioned WPAR.

-D Needed to export devices (to create a rootvg

WPAR).

Chapter 5. Workload partition rootvg support 95

The System rootvg detached WPAR can also be recreated with a WPAR specification file.

In Example 5-2, a detached rootvg WPAR is created using a specification file with the mkwpar

command. To create a shared rootvg WPAR with the same specification, just change the

attribute "privateusr", under the "general" stanza clause, from "yes" to "no".

Example 5-2 The mkwpar -f wpar11specPrivateUSR command

root@750_1_LPAR_9:/home: mkwpar -f wpar11specPrivateUSR

Creating workload partition's rootvg. Please wait...

mkwpar: Creating file systems...

/

/admin

/home

/opt

/proc

/tmp

/usr

/var

Mounting all workload partition file systems.

mkwpar: Copying base files...

...LINES REMOVED...

root@750_1_LPAR_9:/home: cat wpar11specPrivateUSR

general:

name = "wpar11"

checkpointable = "no"

hostname = "wpar11"

directory = "/wpars/wpar11"

privateusr = "yes"

devices = "/etc/wpars/devexports"

ostype = "0"

auto = "no"

rootvgwpar = "yes"

preserve = "no"

routing = "yes"

...LINES REMOVED...

device:

devid = "3E213600A0B8000114632000026614D882CF30F1815 FAStT03IBMfcp"

devtype = "2"

rootvg = "yes"

extension:

kext = "ALL"

...LINES REMOVED...

network:

broadcast = "172.16.23.255"

interface = "en0"

address = "172.16.20.115"

netmask = "255.255.252.0"