Planning for an IBM Power Systems server that is managed by the Integrated Virtualization Manager by using system plans

You can use the System Planning Tool (SPT) to create a system plan that includes configuration specifications for IBM® Power Systems™ servers that are managed by the Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM). You can also use the IVM to create a system plan based on an existing system configuration.

The SPT is a PC-based browser application that can assist you in planning and designing a new system. The SPTvalidates your plan against system requirements and prevents you from exceeding system requirements. It also helps you plan for workloads and performance. The output is a system-plan file that you can deploy to a managed system.

With SPT version 3.0 and later, you can include configuration specifications for the following components of the IVM management partition in your system plan.

Table 1. Networking and storage components included in system plans
Networking components	Storage components
Backup virtual Ethernet adapters EtherChannel or Link Aggregation devices Shared Ethernet Adapter failover Shared Ethernet Adapters Virtual Ethernet adapter mappings between the management partition and its client logical partitions Virtual Ethernet adapters Virtual LANs	Mirroring Multi-path I/O SAN volumes Storage pools (Volume groups) Virtual disk mappings between the management partition and its client logical partitions Virtual disks

The SPT currently does not help you plan for high availability on client logical partitions or Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) solutions for the IVM. The SPT also does not currently help you plan for IBM BladeCenter®. However, SPT 3.0, and later, can help you plan for IBM i logical partitions on IBM System i® models.

To create a system plan that includes configuration specifications for the IVM management partition and its client logical partitions, complete one of the following tasks:

Create a system plan by using the SPT. For instructions, see the System Planning Tool Web site.
Create a system plan based on an existing system configuration. For instructions, see Creating a system plan by using the IVM.
Alternatively, you can use the mksysplan command to create a system plan based on an existing system configuration. The mksysplan command is available from the IVM command line interface (CLI). The Virtual I/O Server and Integrated Virtualization Manager commands contains a detailed description of the IVM mksysplan command.

After you have created a system plan, you can deploy the system plan to the managed system. System plans can be deployed to a system managed by the IVM. For instructions, see Deploying a system plan by using the IVM.