International Business Machines Corporation

Ralph Friedrich

Raymond Michael Higgs

George Kuch

Richard Mark Sczepczenski

Gerhard Banzhaf

Stefan Amann

Elizabeth A Moore

Johnathon R Pandich

Muthumanikandan Nambi

Parakh P Verma

Kishorekumar G Pillai

Juliane Aulbach

Juergen Leopold

Bruce H Ratcliff

Kishore Kumar G Pillai

A method for managing access of virtual machines executed by a host computer system to storage area networks, the storage area networks connecting the host computer system with storage systems via switches, where the host computer system includes one or more host ports to connect with a switch each, and where one or more port names are assigned to each virtual machine. The method includes, for each storage area network connected with the host computer system, sending the port names of a virtual machine and a target port name as part of a validate access command to the respective switch; and when receiving the validate access command by the switch, the switch returning success information to the sending host computer system in case all received virtual machine port names have access to a target port assigned to the received target port name, otherwise returning a fail information.

Access of virtual machines to storage area networks

An aspect of obtaining optical signal health data in a SAN includes receiving, by a computer processor, a request for data corresponding to current operational characteristics of elements of a storage area network to which a host system computer has access. A further aspect includes instantiating, by the computer processor, a virtual host bus adapter interface on the host system computer, transmitting, via the virtual host bus adapter interface, the request to the elements in the portion of the storage area network, aggregating data received from each of the elements, and displaying the aggregated data via the computer processor.

Obtaining optical signal health data in a storage area network

Virtual machines in a computer system cluster, or cloud environment, require access to their assigned storage resources connected to the virtual machines via storage area networks (SAN). Such virtual machines may be independent from associated physical servers in the computer system cluster on which they are deployed. These virtual machines may dynamically migrate among assigned physical servers while maintaining access to their connected storage resources both from the source physical server and the target physical server during the migration.

Flexible deployment and migration of virtual machines

A control component of a computing environment activates a virtual adapter hosted on a physical adapter of a host system of the computing environment. The virtual adapter is for use by a guest of the host system in performing data input and output. The activating activates the virtual adapter absent involvement of the guest. Based on activating the virtual adapter, the control component obtains configuration information of the activated virtual adapter from the physical adapter, the configuration information generated based on the activating. The control component ascertains a configuration of the activated virtual adapter based on the obtained configuration information.

Ascertaining configuration of a virtual adapter in a computing environment

An aspect of validating vHBA fabric zoning in a SAN includes receiving, by a computer processor, a request for data corresponding to zones in a storage area network to which an initiator in a host system computer has access; instantiating, by the computer processor, a virtual host bus adapter interface on the host system computer; and transmitting, via the virtual host bus adapter interface, the request to a fabric controller in the storage area network. An aspect also includes receiving a current active zone set from the fabric controller; parsing the current active zone set for the initiator; identifying, from the parsing, each of the zones in the current active zone set to which the initiator is indicated; and displaying the identified zones via the computer processor.

Validating virtual host bus adapter fabric zoning in a storage area network

A control component of a computing environment initiates sending of request(s) over a network of the computing environment by an activated virtual adapter. The activated virtual adapter is hosted on a physical adapter of a host system coupled to the network, and is for use by a guest, hosted by the host system, in performing data input and output. The request(s) retrieve access control information from the network indicative of access control(s) enforced in controlling access by the activated virtual adapter to network component(s). The initiating provides indication(s) to the physical adapter, absent involvement of the guest, that the request(s) be sent by the virtual adapter. Based on the initiating, the control component obtains the access control information from the physical adapter, and determines, based on that information, the access control(s) being enforced by the network in controlling access by the activated virtual adapter to the network component(s).

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Sindelfingen, Germany

Ralph Friedrich