Integrated Virtual Ethernet

IVE :
It is the collection of hardware, software ad hypervisor feature that provides the hardware-based virtualization capabilities on POWER machines.
It is available on POWER6 and later machines.

What is Host Ethernet Adapter ?
It is the majoy hardware component of the IVE.
It is the Ethernet Adapter built on the Power chip that provides IVE feature on POWER machines.

There are 3 types of HEA's available
Type-1 is a 2-Port 1GB Adapter (FC 5636)  - Copper, 16 MAC addresses, one port group
Type-2 is a 2-Port 10GB Adapter (FC 5637) - Optical - 32 MAC addresses, two port groups
Type-3 is a 4-Port 1GB Adapter (FC 5639) - Copper, 32 MAC addresses, two port groups


What is an IVE port?
It is the physical port on the HEA which can be logically presented to LPARs.
Basically IVE ports are part of port groups.
A port group supports a maximum or 16 logical ports a.k.a Logical Host Ethernet Adapter (Which can be assigned to LPARs).
On a Copper based HEA, 2 physical ports belongs to a port group whereas on a Optical adapters its 1 port per port group.

-> Type-1 adapter can support 16 logical ports (ie., can be assigned to 16 lpars).

-> Type-2 adapter can support 16+16 ie., 32 logical ports.

->Type-3 adapter can support 16+16 ie., 32 logical ports.

• While ordering a POWER machine, you need to choose the type of HVE Otherwise you will receive a Type-1 adapter which is the default. 
• IVE feature is installed during manufacturing. 
• IVE is not a hot-swappable or hot-pluggable feature. 
• IVE must be serviced only by an IBM Service Engineer.
• All the logical ports in a port group can talk to each other without external connectivity, which means all the LPARs on a port group are connected to each other via Layer2 switch on IVE.
• You can assign the logical ports to LPARs only thru HMC.

MCS :

• Multiple Core Scaling (MCS) is a parameter that allows multiple receive and transmit queues (QP) to be supported in each LPAR.
• It is defined at the port group level.
• Default value is 4.
• Depending on the MCS value, the maximum number of logical ports per port group varies.
• MCS value can be set only thru HMC.

IVE Configuration :
An LPAR can use only one logical port per physical port.
While activating an LPAR containing IVE logical ports, the resource is required for activation.
Whereas during DLPAR operation, the IVE logical port is considered as a desired resource.
If you want to add additional VLANS to an existing configured port, you must remove and add the port again with required VLAN IDs.


What you see on LPAR ?
After assigning a logical port to a LPAR, you have to run cfgmgr to see the below devices
-> lhea0 - Logical Host Ethernet Adapter
-> ent0 - Logical Host Ethernet Port
-> en0 and et0 - Logical interfaces

What is Promiscuous mode ?
You can set a physical port (on a HVE thru HMC) to promiscous mode.
If set, that particular port will be reserved for an LPAR. So other LPARs can't see this port.
This is mostly used whilst using VIO on a POWER machine or while configuring a port for a partition running AIX V5.2.

You can refer the URL to get an idea on how to set promiscuous mode in HMC.

What are the OS requirements ?

# IBM AIX 5L™ Version 5.3
– Service Pack 5300-06-02.
– Packaging APAR for this package is IY99738.
– IVE fileset devices.chrp.IBM.lhea.rte must be at level 5.3.0.2 or later.

# IBM AIX 5L Version 5.2
– Service Pack 5200-10-02.
– Packaging APAR for this package is IZ00822.
– IVE fileset devices.chrp.IBM.lhea.rte must be at level 5.2.0.107 or later.

# Red Hat RHEL 4.5 or later
# SuSE SLES 10 SP1 or later

Here are some commands you may use at the LPAR level to find additional details.

To identify the logical port number :
# entstat -d ent0 | grep "Logical Port Number"

To identify the relation between lheax and entx devices :

#lsslot -c slot | grep -i hea
Slot     Description         Device(s)
HEA 1     Logical I/O Slot     lhea0 ent0 ent1

Here are some commands you may use at HMC shell prompt.

To list all the available adapters and their ports  on a managed system :
# lshwres -r hea --rsubtype phys --level sys -m machine_name

To view the port groups on a managed system :
# lshwres -r hea --rsubtype phys --level port_group -m machine_name

To view the physical ports on a managed system :
# lshwres -r hea --rsubtype phys --level port -m machine_name

To view all the logical ports on a managed system :
# lshwres -r hea --rsubtype logical --level sys -m machine_name

To list port configuration configured for an LPAR :
# lshwres -r hea --rsubtype logical --level port -m machine_name --filter lpar_names=lpar01