VIOS (Virtual I/O Server)

Also known as: Virtual I/O Server

A specialized PowerVM partition that manages shared virtual storage and network resources across a Power11 system's logical partitions.

The Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) is a specialized partition running under PowerVM that owns physical storage and network adapters and shares them virtually across other logical partitions on a Power11 system. VIOS is a foundational piece of most Power11 virtualization and consolidation architectures, and its configuration is a common topic in migration and sizing planning.