As SR-IOV environments grow in size and complexity, managing I/O resources across multiple adapters and systems becomes increasingly important. Physical Port labels will provide a simple yet powerful way to bring clarity and control to this process.

Physical port labels allow administrators to group and identify I/O resources across SR-IOV adapters. By assigning labels to physical ports, you can clearly associate them with specific LPAR SR-IOV and vNIC configurations. This makes it much easier to understand which physical ports are intended for which workloads or environments.

These labels play a key role during logical port creation. When a vNIC is being created, the labels help HMC make a better, more informed selection of the underlying physical port, reducing the risk of incorrect assignment.

Physical port labels also matter during Live Partition Mobility (LPM) and Simplified Remote Restart (SRR). In these scenarios, HMC recognizes only the physical port labels (not sub-labels) for vNIC devices. When labels are present, HMC expects the destination system to have matching physical port labels. This ensures that migrated or restarted partitions maintain consistent network connectivity and behaviour.

When Should You Update Physical Port Labels?

You typically update SR-IOV physical port labels when:

·       You want to clearly distinguish production, test, Reserved or DR networks

·       You are preparing systems for LPM or SRR

·       You want consistent vNIC placement across systems

·       You are standardizing network configuration across frames

Update SR-IOV Physical Port Label (HMC GUI)

Log in to HMC, open the target managed system, navigate to System → Hardware → I/O Adapters, select the SR-IOV adapter, choose the required physical port, edit its properties, set the Physical Port Label, and save the changes.

Update SR-IOV Physical Port Label (HMC CLI)

Syntax

chhwres -r sriov -m <managed_system_name> --level type -o s

-a "adapter_id=<adapter_id>,phys_port_id=<port_id>,phys_port_label=<label_name>"

Example

chhwres -r sriov --rsubtype physport -m hmc-zz9-fsp -o s -a "adapter_id=2,phys_port_id=2,phys_port_label=prod"

List the Physical Port labels (HMC CLI)

Syntax

lshwres -r sriov  --rsubtype physport -m <managed_system_name> --level <type> -F adapter_id,phys_port_id,phys_port_label

Example

lshwres -r sriov --rsubtype physport -m system -F adapter_id,phys_port_id,phys_port_label --level eth

output

Important Behavior During LPM and SRR

·       HMC recognizes only physical port labels for vNIC devices.

·       Sub-labels are ignored during LPM and SRR.

·       If a physical port label is set:

o   The destination system must have a matching physical port label

o   Otherwise, the operation may fail or fall back, depending on the override policy

Best Practices for Physical Port Labels

·       Use clear, meaningful names (for example, NET.PROD, NET.DR)

·       Apply labels symmetrically across systems

·       Avoid changing labels while active migrations are in progress

·       Validate labels before performing LPM or SRR

·       Document label usage as part of network design standard.

Visual representation of Sriov Physical Port labels

Summary

SR-IOV physical port labels are a small configuration change with a big impact. By keeping labels accurate and consistent, you improve vNIC placement, reduce migration risks, and make your Power Systems environment easier to manage.

If you are already using LPM or RR, enabling SRIOV Physical port labels is a small change that can deliver big operational benefits.

Contacting the PowerVM Team

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Authors

Malapati Raghavendra

Devesh Kumar Singh