Affected versions: IBM AIX 7.1

📖 ~1 min read

Table of contents
  1. Symptom & Impact
  2. Environment & Reproduction
  3. Root Cause Analysis
  4. Quick Triage
  5. Step-by-Step Diagnosis
  6. Solution – Primary Fix
  7. Solution – Alternative Approaches
  8. Verification & Acceptance Criteria
  9. Rollback Plan
  10. Prevention & Hardening
  11. Related Errors & Cross-Refs
  12. References & Further Reading

Symptom & Impact

VIO client LPAR sees no vSCSI/vNIC disks and lsdev shows Defined for vscsiN.

Environment & Reproduction

Triggered after VIOS reboot, mapping change, or partition profile mismatch.

Root Cause Analysis

VIO server has not exported the backing device or mapping was removed.

Quick Triage

On VIOS, run lsmap -all to see vhostN to client mappings.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

On client, run cfgmgr and lsdev -Cc disk to confirm vSCSI devices.

Illustrative mockup for aix-7.1 — vio-server-mapping-error_diag
Diagnostic view for VIO server mapping error — Illustrative mockup — Progressive Robot

Solution – Primary Fix

On VIOS, run mkvdev -vdev hdiskN -vadapter vhostM to (re)create the mapping.

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Illustrative mockup for aix-7.1 — vio-server-mapping-error_fix
Remediation steps for VIO server mapping error — Illustrative mockup — Progressive Robot

Solution – Alternative Approaches

For SR-IOV/SEA, recheck profile via HMC and re-activate the LPAR if needed.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

Client LPAR sees expected vSCSI/vNIC devices in Available state.

Rollback Plan

Remove the new mapping with rmvdev -vdev hdiskN on VIOS to revert.

Prevention & Hardening

Document mappings via lsmap -all snapshots and review after each VIOS update.

Related to HMC profile drift, MPIO path loss, and SEA failovers.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for aix-7.1.

View all aix-7.1 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

IBM PowerVM VIOS administration guide for AIX 7.2 clients.

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