Creating a system plan by using the HMC

You can use the Hardware Management Console (HMC) to create a system plan, based on an existing system configuration, and then deploy that system plan to other managed systems.

When you create a system plan on the HMC, you can deploy the resulting system plan to create identical logical partition configurations on managed systems with identical hardware. The system plan contains specifications for the logical partitions and partition profiles of the managed system that you used as the basis of creating the system plan.

The new system plan also can contain hardware information that the HMC is able to obtain from the selected managed system. However, the amount of hardware information that the HMC can capture for the new system plan varies based on the method that the HMC uses to gather the hardware information.

Note: When you use the HMC Version 8, Release 8.1.0, or later, on POWER7® or POWER8® processor-based servers, system plans that are created by using the HMC do not include Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) provisioning information.

The HMC can potentially use two methods: inventory gathering and hardware discovery. For example, when using hardware discovery, the HMC can detect information about hardware that is unassigned to a partition or that is assigned to an inactive partition. Additionally, the HMC can use one or both of these methods to detect disk information for IBM® i logical partitions.

Ensure that you meet the requirements for using either or both of the inventory gathering and hardware discovery methods before you create your system plan. See System plan creation requirements for more information.

To create a system plan by using the Hardware Management Console, complete the following steps:

Choose one of the following navigation options depending on the interface type of the Hardware Management Console (HMC):
- If you are using an HMC Classic interface, complete the following steps:
  1. In the navigation area of the HMC, select System Plans. The System Plans page opens.
  2. In the tasks area, select Create System Plan. The Create System Plan window opens.
- The HMC Classic interface is not supported in Hardware Management Console (HMC) Version 8.7.0, or later. The functions that were previously available in the HMC Classic interface are now available in the HMC Enhanced+ interface.
  If you are using an HMC that is at version 8.7.0, or later, complete the following steps:
  1. In the navigation pane, click the HMC Management icon .
  2. Click All System Plans. The All System plans page is displayed.
  3. Click Create. The Create System Plan window opens.
Select the managed system that you want to use as the basis for the new system plan.
Enter a name and description for the new system plan.
Optional: Select whether you want to retrieve inactive and unallocated hardware resources. This option appears only if the managed system is capable of hardware discovery, and the option is selected by default.
Note: If you do not select the Retrieve inactive and unallocated hardware resources option, the HMC does not perform a new hardware discovery, but instead uses the data in the inventory cache on the system. The HMC still performs inventory gathering and retrieves hardware information for any active logical partitions on the managed server. The resulting new system plan contains hardware information from the inventory-gathering process and hardware information from the hardware inventory cache on the system.
Optional: Select whether you want to view the system plan immediately after the HMC creates it.
Click Create.
Note: If your HMC is at version 8.7.0, or later, click Refresh to view the new system plan.

Now that you have a new system plan, you can export the system plan, import it onto another managed system, and deploy the system plan to that managed system.

Last updated: Wed, June 21, 2017