Integrated Virtualization Manager
Overview
The IVM allows you to do POWER5 Virtualization on System p (505, 510, 520, 550, 560), IBM BladeCenter JS21 and OpenPower (710 and 720) without using a HMC.
Main points:
- This makes a lot of sense on these lower end machines and on systems where full HMC functions are not required and where the HMC can seem expensive (when managing just one machine).
- The HMC function is actually performed by the IVM running on the first logical partition (LPAR) - which is a VIO Server Version 1.2 and 1.3 that owns all the physical adapters.
- All the other LPARs use virtual disks, virtual Ethernet, virtual console and virtual CDROM/DVD.
- The IVM is accessed mainly by the IVM website from this VIO Server but there are a few commands which you access by telnet to the VIO Server.
 | Please note...
Beginning with VIOS1.3.0.0-FP8.0 (the fixpack 8.0) the VIOS is installed with SSH. Unfortunately or historically telnet and ftp are still possible. To disable these, use the stopnetsvc command. For example: stopnetsvc telnet and stopnetsvc ftp |
- Only four simple commands are used for the initial IVM setup and the one more for accessing the virtual console to the LPAR to install the LPAR OS (AIX, Red Hat and SUSE). There are more commands but these are not used much. As a quick reminder these are:
- First you must select a new password for the user padmin.
- license -view and then license -accept (optional if you already know the license simply say license -accept because you don't have to review the license.)
- mkgencfg -o init (might be usefull to know that the maximum number of possible lpars is always set to half of the maximum number of lpars. To increase this number from the beginning say mkgencfg -o init -i "pend_lpm_max_lpars=<numberofLPARs>"
- chdate mmddHHMMYYyy (the timezone is not required to set the date and the time)
- mktcpip -hostname HostName -inetaddr Address -interface Interface -start -netmask SubnetMask -gateway Gateway -nsrvaddr NameServerAddress -nsrvdomain Domain - you should use this for the Ethernet adapter connected to the network. To get a list of all installed adapters type lsdev -type adapter. And finally to find out which adapter is placed in which slot type ldev -dev ADAPTER -vpd - for example: lsdev -dev ent0 -vpd.
- Everything else is done from the good looking and simple to use IVM website. Just connect to the hostname or ipaddress you've configured with mktcpip and login as user padmin with the password you've choosen.
IVM - Using DLPAR on Linux partitions
With the availability of the IBM Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) version 1.3.0.0 FP8.0 it is now possible to work with DLPAR on Linux client partitions. In an IVM szenario this means simply adding virtual CPU and Capacity Entitlements (CE) to a running partition.
In order to use DLPAR capabilities on IVM / Linux-based LPARs you must install the correct version of the IBM service and productivity tools for Linux on POWER - namely the tools required for HMC- or IVM-based systems.
| note...
This is also true for JS21 BladeServers! |
First of all update the VIOS to version 1.3.0.0 - FP8.0. The latest Fixpack can be downloaded from:
http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/virtualization/home.html
- selecting the download tab.
Use the updateios command to actually update the VIOS.
| Please note...
Please note that the IVM must be restarted after the update! |
Next go the the following URL and install the service tools for HMC- or IVM-based systems for your distribution:
http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/lopdiags/home.html
| Please note...
It might be usefull to uninstall all previous versions of those tools - at least the ppc64-utils package.
In addition --nodeps is sometimes required for DynamicRM to get installed. |
Now you must tell the IVM about DLPAR capabilities of your Linux partitions.
- Log on the IVM web interface as user padmin.
- Now select the partition you've installed the service tools and klick on Properties at the bottom line of the left (main) window.
- On the next window you can find a section called "Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR). Click on the Retrieve Capabilities button.
- Now the list gets updated and "Processing DLPAR capable:" should say "Yes"
- This step is not really necessary but it seems good to know that the IVM knows about the DLPAR capablilities.
- Change to the "Processing" tab and adjust the values as required/desired.
- Finally press "OK" at the bottom of the Partition Properties window.
Don't get confused about the attention sign on the "Processors" field - if you've changed the number of virtual CPUs - it takes some time for the operation to finish.
IVM Links
