Patent ID: 8561064

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a power off command that specifies a slot, wherein a first adapter is connected to a computer via the slot, wherein the first adapter comprises a first physical function and a first virtual function; in response to the power off command, stopping data transfer from a logical partition to the first virtual function, releasing a virtual function lock of the first virtual function held by the logical partition, and powering off the slot; retaining ownership of the first virtual function by the logical partition while the virtual function lock is released and the slot is powered off, wherein the retaining ownership of the first virtual function by the logical partition further comprises using a same data transfer address by the logical partition to access the first virtual function in the first adapter and to access a second virtual function in a second adapter; after the powering off of the slot, receiving a power on command that specifies the slot, wherein the second adapter comprises a second physical function and the second virtual function, and wherein the second adapter is connected to the computer via the slot and wherein the second adapter replaces the first adapter connected to the slot, wherein the first virtual function is a same virtual function as the second virtual function and wherein the second physical function is a same physical function as the first physical function; and in response to the power on command, powering on the slot, locking the virtual function lock of the same virtual function for the logical partition.