This is all fine, but you should be aware that this way you will never have the possibility of LPM (live partition mobility). LPM means the ability to move an LPAR to another hardware box ("managed system" in IBM-speak) on the same HMC without even stopping it. For this to work you (obviously) must not have any non-virtualised components in the LPAR: disks, adapters, etc..

If you want LPM you need to create 1 (2) VIOS LPARs, give these all the physical adapters, then create virtual adapters and give out these to the other LPARs. Instead of physical SCSI disks you usually create LUNs on the SAN, connect them to the VIOS, give them out to the LPARs as virtual SCSI (vscsi) disks and use these. Usually this is used for boot disks, for data disks you either use the same or FC-connected ("NPIV")-disks. When you move a LPAR via LPM the vscsi-disks are moved to the VIOS on the target managed system in the process.


That is OK. In fact some applications will prescribe exact versions anyway, so, as long as your version is supported (which is the case with 7.1), you are on the safe side.

The POWER8 is a new hardware so expect the microcode to change quite oftenly in the next future. In general you only update when you must, not, when you can. It is good practice to install the very latest revision before the system goes productive because this way you might avoid the one or other downtime. Save for that: wait until you have a support case and support advises you to update microcode or a software update makes it necessary. Only then install the - at that time - latest microcode. As long as you haven't got a problem related to it: leave it alone.

Do you have a NIM server? If so make sure this is at the absolutely latest AIX version there is, because it can only serve systems at the same or lower versions than it is itself.

I hope this helps.

bakunin