Deploying a system plan by using the HMC Version 6

You can use the Hardware Management Console (HMC) to deploy all or part of a system plan to a managed system.

Before you begin

When you deploy a system plan, the HMC creates logical partitions on the managed system according to the specifications in the system plan.

Before you deploy a system plan, complete the following tasks:

Ensure that the system-plan file exists on the HMC. If the system-plan file does not exist on the HMC, you must import the system-plan file into the HMC. For more information about importing a system-plan file, see Importing a system-plan file.
Verify that the physical hardware is connected and reporting to the server. Every server comes with one logical partition with one partition profile. All of the physical hardware resources on the system are automatically assigned to this logical partition so that you can power on the server and verify that the physical hardware is connected and reporting to the server.
Delete the logical partition that was provided with your server, and delete any other logical partition that is not in the system plan. For instructions, see Deleting a logical partition. The name of the logical partition that was provided with the server is the serial number of the managed system, and the name of the partition profile is default.
Shut down any logical partitions that you have already deployed to the managed system from the system plan.
Ensure that you are not performing any other operations on the managed system using this HMC or any other HMC that is attached to the managed system.
Ensure that you are a super administrator. For more information about user roles, refer to Tasks and roles.

About this task

To use the HMC to deploy a system plan on a managed system, complete the following steps:

In the navigation area of your HMC, select System Plans.
In the contents area, select Manage System Plans.
Select the system-plan file that contains the system plan that you want to deploy and click Deploy to start the Deploy System Plan wizard. If you are not certain which system-plan file to choose, you can select a system-plan file and click View to list the contents of a system-plan file in a browser window.
Verify that the system-plan file that you want to deploy is displayed and click Next.
Optional: If there are multiple system plans within the system-plan file, the wizard prompts you to select the system plan that you want to deploy from that system-plan file. Select the system plan that you want to deploy in the System plan to deploy field and click Next.
Select the managed system to which you want to deploy the system plan in Managed system field and click Next. If the system plan does not match the managed system to which you want to deploy the plan, the wizard displays a window that informs you of this. Click OK to continue or Cancel to select a different system plan.
Wait for the wizard to validate the managed system and its hardware against the system plan. The validation process can take several minutes.
If the validation process completes successfully, click Next. If the validation process does not complete successfully, correct the issues that the error messages describe, click Cancel to exit the wizard, and restart this procedure from the beginning. To help you to correct validation issues, you might want to create a system plan that is based on the current configuration of the managed system. Such a system plan would allow you to compare the system plan that you want to deploy with the current configuration of the managed system. For more information about creating a system plan, see Creating a system plan.
Optional: If you do not want to create all of the logical partitions, partition profiles, virtual adapter types, or virtual adapters in the system plan, clear the boxes in the Deploy column beside the logical partitions, partition profiles, virtual adapter types, or virtual adapters that you do not want to create. Virtual serial adapters are required in virtual slots 0 and 1 for each logical partition. You cannot create the logical partition unless you create these virtual serial adapters.
Click Next to continue.
Review the system deployment step order and click Finish. The HMC creates the specified logical partitions. This process can take several minutes.

What to do next

After you finish the deployment of the system plan, complete the following tasks:

Locate the physical disk I/O adapters that belong to each logical partition and verify that the disk drives that are attached to these physical I/O adapters will support your desired configuration for each logical partition.
Install operating systems and software on the logical partitions. For installation procedures for AIX®, i5/OS®, and Linux®, refer to Installing operating systems. For installation procedures for the Virtual I/O Server, refer to Installing the Virtual I/O Server manually using the HMC version 6.
Configure the virtual I/O adapters that are assigned to each logical partition within the operating systems so that virtual storage resources can be shared among logical partitions.