Changing a partition template

You can change the details that are specified in a user-defined or captured partition template and save the changes in a new partition template. You can also overwrite the template by saving the changes in the same template. You can use the template to create a logical partition by using the Hardware Management Console (HMC).

About this task

To change the partition template by using the HMC, complete the following steps:

Procedure

  1. In the navigation pane, click the HMC Management icon The icon represents the HMC Management function of the HMC.
  2. Click Templates and OS Images.
  3. Click the Partition tab and select the partition template that you want to change.
  4. Click Action > Edit.
  5. To change the partition properties of the template, click the Properties tab.
    In the Overview area of the General tab, you can change the general properties such as the partition name and the type of partition. Also, you can view the virtual serial number that is captured in the template. You can enable or disable Simplified Remote Restart, in the Virtualization Capabilities area of the General tab. You can choose one of the following three options for the value of the Simplified Remote Restart field:
    • When you select the value Enabled, the HMC validates whether the server supports the simplified remote restart capability. If the server supports the feature, the partition is created successfully during partition creation by using the Create Partition from Template wizard. When the server does not support the feature, creation of the partition fails and an error message is displayed.
    • When you select the value Enable if Possible, the HMC validates whether the server supports the simplified remote restart capability. If the server supports the feature, the partition is created successfully during partition creation by using the Create Partition from Template wizard. Otherwise, the Create Partition from Template wizard completes successfully without the simplified remote restart capability.
    • When you select the value Disabled, the partition is created during partition creation by using the Create Partition from Template wizard without the simplified remote restart capability.
    In the Advanced settings area, you can configure, enable and disable advanced AIX®, Linux®, or IBM® i features. You can also disable the Live Partition Mobility feature for an AIX, Linux, or IBM i partition. The Advanced settings that are displayed depend on the type of partition you selected. You can select a value for the Secure Boot field if you are using HMC V9.1.920, or later and when the firmware is at level FW920, or later. Additionally, if the HMC is at a Version 9.2.950, or later, and when the firmware is at level FW950, or later, you can specify a value of either 0 kilobytes (KB) or a value that is supported by the managed system for the Keystore Size field. Click Save As to save the changes in a new name template. Otherwise, click Save and Exit to overwrite the changes in the template.
  6. To change the shared processor settings of the template, click the Processor tab and select Shared for the Processor Mode field.
    1. From the Shared Processor Pool field, select the shared processor pool for the partition.
    2. Select Capped or Uncapped as the processor weight. For capped processor weight, specify a value for the weight in the Weight field.
    3. In the Virtual Processors area, you can specify values for the Maximum, Allocated, and Minimum fields.
    4. In the Processing Units area, you can specify values for the Maximum, Allocated, and Minimum fields.
    5. Click Save As to save the changes in a new name template. Otherwise, click Save and Exit to overwrite the changes in the template.
  7. To change the dedicated processor settings of the template, click the Processor tab and select Dedicated for the Processor Mode field.
    If you select Dedicated as the processor mode, the options for specifying the virtual processors, and processing units, and selecting capped or uncapped processor weight are not available.
    1. In the Processors area, you can specify values for the Maximum, Allocated, and Minimum fields.
    2. Click the Advanced Settings tab to change the Processor Compatability Mode or enable or disable the Dedicated Donor Mode.
    3. Click Save As to save the changes in a new name template. Otherwise, click Save and Exit to overwrite the changes in the template.
  8. To change the shared memory settings of the template, click the Memory tab and select Shared for the Memory Mode field.
    1. You can select MB or GB as the memory unit.
    2. In the Memory Allocation area, you can specify values for the Maximum, Allocated, and Minimum fields.
    3. Click the Advanced Settings tab to change the advanced memory settings for the logical partition. From the Assigned I/O Entitled memory list, select Auto or Manual. If the operating system environment is IBM i, you can use Huge Page Memory. If the operating system environment is AIX, you can also choose to use active memory expansion by selecting Enable Active memory Expansion.
    4. Click Save As to save the changes in a new name template. Otherwise, click Save and Exit to overwrite the changes in the template.
  9. To change the dedicated memory settings of the template, click the Memory tab and select Dedicated for the Memory Mode field.
    1. You can select MB or GB as the memory unit.
    2. In the Memory Allocation area, you can specify values for the Maximum, Allocated, and Minimum fields.
    3. Click the Advanced Settings tab to change the advanced memory settings for the logical partition. If the operating system environment is IBM i, you can choose use Huge Page Memory. If the operating system environment is AIX, you can also choose to use active memory expansion by selecting Enable Active memory Expansion.
      If the processor mode is dedicated, then you can set the memory only to the dedicated mode.
    4. Click Save As to save the changes in a new name template. Otherwise, click Save and Exit to overwrite the changes in the template.
  10. To change the physical I/O settings of the template, click the Physical I/O Adapters tab.
    When you use a template with captured I/O information, the Physical I/O Adapters tab displays a table of the captured I/O adapter information and the descriptions of those adapters as captured from the original system. These descriptions might not display the actual adapter type to which the location codes are mapped on the target system. You cannot change the I/O adapter settings when the captured I/O information matches that of the target system. If you do not want to use the captured information, clear the Use Captured I/O Information check box. You can assign I/O adapters that are displayed to the partition.
  11. To change the configuration of the persistent memory volume in the template, click the Persistent Memory tab.
    Persistent memory is supported only when you are using HMC V9.1.940, or later and when the firmware is at level FW940, or later.
    1. In the Persistent Memory area, you can view all the virtual persistent memory volumes that are configured for the logical partition.
      If you are using the captured I/O information, you can view the name of persistent memory volume, affinity, and the size of the persistent memory volume that are captured from the original system. If you are not using the captured I/O information, you can complete the following tasks:
      • To add persistent memory volumes, click Add in the Persistent Memory page.
      • To remove persistent memory volumes, select the persistent memory volumes in the Persistent Memory page and click Action > Remove.
      • You can select the Affinity check box in the Partition Properties page when you want the operating system to get information about the memory allocation across multiple dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs). This information might be useful for applications that run on the logical partition.
  12. To change the virtual network settings of the template, click the Virtual Networks tab in the Details area.
    1. In the Partition Virtual Networks area, you can choose either Choose Virtual Networks during Deployment or Specify Virtual Networks in this Partition Template.
    2. If you choose Specify Virtual Networks in this Partition Template, you must specify the virtual local area network (VLAN) Name and VLAN ID. To add a virtual network, click the Add Network tab. A row is appended to the bottom of the table with the appropriate fields. To remove a network, select a network to be deleted from the table and click Remove Selected.
    3. Click Save As to save the changes in a new name template. Otherwise, click Save and Exit to overwrite the changes in the template.
  13. To change the virtual Network Interface Controller (vNIC) settings of the template, click the Virtual NICs tab in the Details area.
    1. You can edit, add, or remove vNICs only when you clear the Use Captured I/O Information check box. To add vNICs to the template, click Add Virtual NIC. You can specify values for the Port VLAN ID, VLAN ID restrictions, MAC Address, OS MAC Address restrictions, Backing Device Capacity (%), and Backing Device Failover Priority fields. The default value for the Backing Device Failover Priority field is Use Default. To modify the default values for the backing device or to add and remove backing devices to the vNIC, select the virtual NIC and click Action > Modify Backing Device. You can enable or disable Virtual NIC Auto Priority Failover. To add more backing devices to the vNIC, click Add Backing Device. To remove a backing device, select the backing device and click Remove. To change the settings of a vNIC, select the vNIC that you want to change and click Actions > Modify. To remove a vNIC, select a vNIC to be deleted from the table and click Actions > Remove.
      If the Use Captured I/O Information check box is selected, you can view the vNICs listed in the table but you cannot edit the vNICs. To view the details of a vNIC, select the vNIC and click Actions > View.
    2. Click Save As to save the changes in a new name template. Otherwise, click Save and Exit to overwrite the changes in the template.
  14. To change the virtual storage settings of the template, click the Virtual Storage tab in the Details area.
    1. In the Virtual SCSI tab, you can configure the virtual SCSI adapters that are required for a partition activation. If you are using a captured template, the table displays all the shared storage pool volumes that are captured in the template.
    2. In the Shared Storage Pool Volume area, click the Add SSP Volume tab to add shared storage pool volumes, or click Remove Selected to remove the selected shared storage volume.
      You must specify a shared storage pool volume in the template to add any shared storage pool volumes when you are creating the partition by using the template.
    3. You can choose to specify the shared storage pool cluster when you are creating the partition by selecting the value Choose at deploy from the Shared Storage Pool Cluster Name list, or you can specify the shared storage pool and the tier.
    4. You can also enable or disable thin provisioning for the shared storage volume pools.
    5. In the Physical Volumes area, you can enable Configure Physical Volumes.
    1. Click Save As to save the changes in a new name template. Otherwise, click Save and Exit to overwrite the changes in the template.
  15. To change the virtual Fibre Channel settings of the template, click the Virtual Fibre Channel tab.
    1. You can choose Configure Virtual Fibre Channel storage during deployment, Configure Virtual Fibre Channel storage with captured information, or Do not configure Virtual Fibre Channel storage.
      If you are using a captured template, the captured Fibre Channel Port information is also displayed.
    2. Click Save As to save the changes in a new name template. Otherwise, click Save and Exit to overwrite the changes in the template.
  16. To change the virtual optical device settings of the template, click the Virtual Optical Device tab. You can choose to configure the virtual optical device adapter that is required for the partition activation. The table displays all the Virtual Optical Devices that are captured in the template.
    1. Click Add Virtual Optical Device to add an optical device.
    2. To delete a device, click the Remove tab that is displayed in the row of the optical device that you want to delete.
    3. Click Save As to save the changes in a new name template. Otherwise, click Save and Exit to overwrite the changes in the template.
  17. In the Details area, click the Hardware Virtualized I/O tab.
    1. Click the HEA tab. You can change the operating system-level VLAN ID and MAC address restrictions for each logical Host Ethernet adapter (LHEA) that is listed in the table. If you select the Use Captured I/O Information check box, you cannot add or remove any logical ports or change the values of the Advanced Settings tab.
      You cannot add or remove any LHEA.
    2. Click the SR-IOV tab. The Use Captured I/O Information check box is selected by default.
      • If you are using captured I/O information, you cannot add or remove any logical ports or change the values in the Advanced Settings tab. If the captured partition template contains information about RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) logical ports, that information about the RoCE logical ports is also listed. In the SR-IOV Logical Ports area, you can view but cannot change the settings of the SR-IOV backup devices that can be migrated to another server.
      • If you are not using the captured I/O information by clearing the Use Captured I/O Information check box, you can complete the following tasks:
        • Change properties that are specific to Ethernet logical ports.
        • Specify the capacity of the logical port as a percentage of the capability of the physical port. The capacity level determines the amount of resources that are assigned to the logical port from the physical port.
        • Click the Add tab to add a RoCE logical port to the template.
        • Configure an SR-IOV logical port such that you can migrate the logical port to another server by selecting the SR-IOV backup device from the Backup Device Type list in the Modify Advanced Settings page.
      Notes:
      • You can migrate only SR-IOV logical ports but you cannot migrate RoCE logical ports.
      • When the HMC is at Version 9.1.940.x, and when the firmware is at level FW940, the Migratable option for the Hybrid Network Virtualization capability is available as a Technology Preview only and is not intended for production deployments. However, when the HMC is at Version 9.1.941.0, or later, and when the firmware is at level FW940.10, or later, the Migratable option for the Hybrid Network Virtualization capability is supported.
    3. To edit the settings of the logical port, select the port and click the Advanced Settings tab. You can select values for the OS MAC Address Restrictions and VLAN ID Restrictions fields.
      • If you selected Allow Specified as the value for the OS MAC Address Restrictions field, you must specify the MAC addresses in the Specify allowed MAC Address(es) field. To add more MAC addresses, click the plus sign (+) and to remove MAC addresses, click the minus sign (−).
      • If you selected Allow Specified as the value for the VLAN ID Restrictions field, you must specify the VLAN ID or range of VLAN IDs in the Specify VLAN ID(s) or range field.
      • If you specify the value for the VLAN ID as 0, the 802.1Q Priority priority field is disabled. However, if you specify any value in the range 2 - 4094, you can set the priority value. Priority is used to prioritize the frames in a VLAN network.
      • The Promiscuous option is disabled unless the logical port is used as the physical device for bridging virtual Ethernet adapters on client partitions. When the logical port is in promiscuous mode, the VLAN ID Restrictions and the OS MAC Address Restrictions fields are disabled. Click Close.
    4. To add a logical port, click the Yes tab.
    5. To remove a logical port, click the Remove Selected tab.
    6. Click Save As to save the changes in a new name template. Otherwise, click Save and Exit to overwrite the changes in the template.