System requirements

Installation requirements

Cloud Pak System Software for Power is supported for use with POWER8® and later processors.

Platform System Manager requirements

• x86 64-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 8.10 with the recent updates.
  • The Red Hat Enterprise Linux system must be dedicated to running Cloud Pak System Software for Power and not other enterprise applications.
  • Restriction:

    • You must have the English locale (LANG=en_US.UTF-8) set in Red Hat Enterprise Linux. By default, this setting is configured in the /etc/sysconfig/i18n file.
    • The shell profile and start files must not include custom prompts (for example, PS1, PS2) or terminal line (stty) settings.
• Cloud Pak System Software for Power must be installed and run as the root user on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system.
  Note: More users are created with random passwords and keys.
• Only administrative users responsible for installation and maintenance of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system require access to Platform System Manager installation.
• The System Security Services Daemon (SSSD) must not be enabled on the Platform System Manager operating system. New users are created, and these new users must be able to SSH and authenticate on the Platform System Manager without the need to update SSSD or Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) settings.
• Modifications to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux default sshd configuration (/etc/ssh/sshd_config) are not supported. Cloud Pak System Software for Power requires an internal user's public and private keys to be in specific locations. These keys are used for key based authentication. Modifications that change the default behavior of sshd can break various functions in Cloud Pak System Software for Power.
• On the Platform System Manager, you must set the default umask to 002. This setting is often configured in /etc/profile. A more restrictive umask can cause permission issues.
• Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) must be disabled or in permissive mode. Avoid extra warning messages in the logs by setting it to permissive mode.
• CPU: Minimum of 12 cores
• Memory: Minimum of 80 GB (of which up to 40 GB can be swap space)
• Partitions: 4 disk partitions
  • Root: Minimum of 10 GB
  • Data: Minimum of 1.5 TB
  • Runtime: Minimum of 500 GB
  • Temp: Minimum of 5.5 GB
  Note: The preceding requirements assume that /opt is part of the Root file system. If it is a separate partition, free space is needed for IBM software that is installed under the /opt directory. Make sure that 4 GB of free space is available for this software.
• Red Hat YUM with configured YUM repositories Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 8.10 and Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux
• Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) packages automatically installed from YUM repositories:
  • pm -ivh mailcap-2.1.48-3.el8.noarch
  • rpm -ivh apr-1.6.3-12.el8.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh apr-util-1.6.1-9.el8.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh httpd-tools-2.4.37-62.module+el8.9.0+19699+7a7a2044.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh httpd-2.4.37-62.module+el8.9.0+19699+7a7a2044.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh mod_security-2.9.6-1.el8.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh mod_security_crs-3.3.4-3.el8.noarch
  • rpm -ivh compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-69.el6.i686
  • rpm -ivh compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-69.el6.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh ed-1.14.2-4.el8.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh mailx-12.5-29.el8.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh at-3.1.20-12.el8.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh bc-1.07.1-5.el8.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh patch-2.7.6-11.el8.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh time-1.9-3.el8.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh redhat-lsb-submod-security-4.1-47.el8.i686
  • rpm -ivh redhat-lsb-submod-security-4.1-47.el8.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh cups-libs-2.2.6-54.el8_9.i686
  • rpm -ivh cups-libs-2.2.6-54.el8_9.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh cups-client-2.2.6-54.el8_9.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh spax-1.5.3-13.el8.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh m4-1.4.18-7.el8.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh psmisc-23.1-5.el8.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh redhat-lsb-core-4.1-47.el8.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh lsof-4.93.2-1.el8.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh mod_ssl-2.4.37-62.module+el8.9.0+19699+7a7a2044.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh apr-util-ldap-1.6.1-9.el8.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh mod_ldap-2.4.37-62.module+el8.9.0+19699+7a7a2044.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh libcgroup-0.41-19.el8.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh libcgroup-tools-0.41-19.el8.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh libaio-0.3.112-1.el8.x86_64
  • rpm -ivh perl-Net-Ping
  • rpm -ivh compat-openssl10
  • rpm -ivh net-snmp
  • rpm -ivh net-snmp-utils
• Firewall:
  • The loopback interface must be configured to accept all connections for IPv4 & IPv6 traffic.
  • Ports for outbound traffic must be open.
  • Specific ports for inbound traffic are allowed through the firewall. See the following table:

    Table 2. Inbound ports allowed through the firewall

    Port	Protocol	Purpose
    80	TCP	HTTPd
    123	UDP	NTPD
    162	UDP	Virtual machine to Cloud Pak System Software communication
    443	TCP	HTTPd
    8585	TCP	Virtual machine to Cloud Pak System Software communication
    9443	TCP	Virtual machine to Cloud Pak System Software communication
    9444	TCP	Virtual machine to Cloud Pak System Software communication

  • Specific ports for internal communication between components are open. See the following table:

    Table 3. Ports for internal communication between components

    Port	Protocol
    657	TCP
    2000	TCP
    5000-5001	TCP
    5003-5011	TCP
    7005-7007	TCP
    8080	TCP
    8383	TCP
    9080	TCP
    9081	TCP
    50002	TCP
    50003	TCP
    1747	UDP
    1804	UDP
    2123	UDP
    2176	UDP
    2495	UDP
    2517	UDP
    2534	UDP
    2551	UDP
    12347	UDP
    12348	UDP

PowerVC requirements

• The Administrator user ID is required for PowerVC.
• Register the HMC Connection and all Hosts in PowerVC.
• Add the Storage Provider to PowerVC.
  Note: Shared Storage Pools are not supported by Cloud Pak System Software.
• These PowerVC customizations must be set as specified:
  • in /etc/cinder/cinder.conf and /etc/cinder/<server_name>.conf:

    volume_name_template = %s
    pvc_volume_name_template = %(display_name)s
    default_log_levels = urllib3=WARN,cinder=DEBUG,powervc_cinder=DEBUG

  • in /etc/nova/nova.conf and /etc/nova/<server_name>.conf:

    default_log_levels = urllib3=WARN,nova=DEBUG,powervc_nova=DEBUG
    automated_powervm_vlan_cleanup = False
    instance_name_template = %(display_name)s

  • After you update the configuration files, run the following command to restart thePowerVC services:

    /opt/ibm/powervc/bin/powervc-services restart

• NTP must be configured correctly and match the Platform System Manager configuration.
• The PowerVC installation must be dedicated for use only by Cloud Pak System Software.
• After compute node is registered to PowerVC, configure fiber channel ports connectivity type to vSCSI. For more information on configuring the FC ports, see https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/powervc-cloud/2.2.0?topic=powervc-configuring-fibre-channel-ports
  Note: You must repeat this step for the each time the host re-registers to the PowerVC.
• The migration of the VM with the power status as stopped is not supported. You can migrate the VM from the PowerVC User Interface.

HMC requirements

• The Administrator user ID is required for the HMC.
• Add the VIOS to the HMC. If more than one VIOS is used, you must add them all.
• Open the SSH port in the firewall.
• Enable remote command execution.
• Enable remote operation.
• NTP must be configured correctly and match the Platform System Manager configuration.
• After the compute node is registered to HMC, do the following:
  • Enable performance data collection. For more information on enabling data collection, seehttps://www.ibm.com/docs/en/power10?topic=gs-enabling-data-collection
  • Configure VM utilization sampling state to 60 seconds using the command HMC.chlparutil -r config -s 60. For more information, see https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/power10/000V-HMC?topic=commands-chlparutil

VIOS requirements

• Each VIOS must have a defined hostname and the hostname must be able to be pinged by other systems.
• NTP must be configured correctly and match the Platform System Manager configuration.
• Each VIOS must have ipasDefault as a profile name.

Compute node requirements

• Maximum of 32
• CPU: Any number of cores and speeds if all compute nodes within the same cloud group are the same.
• Memory: Any amount. Avoid trouble by ensuring a single cloud group does not contain compute nodes with mixed memory.
• Restriction: The compute node name, which is registered as the server name in HMC, must follow this format: Server-<machine type>-<model>-SN<serial>. For example: Server-7895-43X-SN10F353A.

  The compute node hostname must follow this format: <machine type><model>_<serial>. For example: 789543X_10F353A.

• No virtual machines or compute nodes besides the ones that are managed by Cloud Pak System Software for Power.

Network requirements

• The Platform System Manager has an assigned IPv4 address on the same network as PowerVC Server.
• The Platform System Manager has IPv6 that is enabled for local loopback.
• The DNS and NTP servers are available.
• Deployed virtual machines can reach the Platform System Manager operating system.

Supported guest operating systems

Storage requirements

• You must have a 1 MB volume that is mapped to all compute nodes. This volume is needed for image import.
• IBM Storwize storage or IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC) storage is required.
• N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) is not supported. Storage must use virtual SCSI (vSCSI).
• Shared storage pools are not supported.