IBM PowerVC Providers

IBM PowerVC

IBM PowerVC is an advanced virtualization and cloud management offering. Built on OpenStack, it provides simplified virtualization management and cloud deployments for IBM AIX®, IBM i and Linux virtual machines (VMs) running on IBM Power Systems™. The offering is designed to build private cloud capabilities on Power Systems servers and improve administrator productivity. It can further integrate with cloud environments through higher-level cloud orchestrators.

Adding IBM PowerVC Providers

The corresponding Infrastructure Automation plugin supports IBM PowerVC v1.4.4 or higher.

Complete the following procedure to add an IBM PowerVC cloud provider in Infrastructure Automation.

  1. Browse to menu: Compute > Clouds > Providers.

  2. Click Configuration, then click 1862 (Add a New Cloud Provider).

  3. From the Type list, select IBM PowerVC.

  4. Enter a Name for the provider.

  5. Select the appropriate Zone.

  6. Enter the PowerVC region in Provider Region.

  7. Select the appropriate Domain ID.

  8. (Optional) Enable tenant mapping by toggling the Tenant Mapping Enabled option to On. This synchronizes resources and users between the IBM PowerVC provider and Infrastructure Automation. By default, tenant mapping is disabled.

  9. Under Endpoints, in the Default tab:

    1. Select a Security Protocol method to specify how to authenticate the provider:

      • SSL without validation: Authenticate the provider insecurely using SSL.

      • SSL: Authenticate the provider securely using a trusted Certificate Authority. Select this option if the provider has a valid SSL certificate and it is signed by a trusted Certificate Authority. No further configuration is required for this option. This is the recommended authentication method.

      • Non-SSL: Connect to the provider insecurely using only HTTP protocol, without SSL.

    2. In PowerVC API Endpoint (Hostname or IPv4/IPv6 address), enter the public IP or fully qualified domain name of the PowerVC API endpoint.

    3. In API Port, set the public port used by the PowerVC API. By default, PowerVC is configured to use port 5000.

    4. In the API Username field, enter the name of a user in the PowerVC environment.

      The user must have the **admin** role for the relevant domain.

    5. In the API Password field, enter the password for the user.

    6. Click Validate to confirm Infrastructure Automation can connect to the PowerVC provider.

  10. Click Add.

Enabling Capacity and Utilization data from IBM PowerVC Providers

In addition to enabling general Capacity and Utilization Collection, complete the following procedure to enable Capacity and Utilization data for an IBM PowerVC cloud provider in Infrastructure Automation.

Virtual Machines for which you want to monitor capacity and utilization data need to be created with a Compute Template with performance information collection enabled.

  1. In the IBM PowerVC web interface, navigate to Virtual Machines > Compute Templates in the side menu.

  2. In the Compute Templates Menu, select the Create + button.

  3. During creation of the Compute Template, select the Miscellaneous tab.

  4. Then select the checkbox with the description Enable performance information collection.

  5. Continue with template creation. When ready, select Create to create your template.

Any Virtual Machines created using that template will be able to transmit Capacity and Utilization data to Infrastructure Automation.

Enabling Events in IBM PowerVC

Service events must be enabled in IBM PowerVC in order for Infrastructure Automation to collect and display them.

  1. Login to the PowerVC CLI and check if the following services are enabled: 
    powervc-config image audit
powervc-config compute audit
powervc-config storage audit
  2. If the services are not enabled, use the following commands to enable them: 
    powervc-config image audit --enable --restart
powervc-config compute audit --enable --restart
powervc-config storage audit --enable --restart

After enabling the services Infrastructure Automation will be able to collect and display event data.

Viewing IBM PowerVC Events in Infrastructure Automation

In Infrastructure Automation, view events for your IBM PowerVC Provider by following these steps:

  1. Browse to menu: Compute > Clouds > Providers and select your IBM PowerVC Provider.

  2. Go to Monitoring > Timelines on the provider summary page to view an events timeline for the provider.