Creating logical partitions

You can use the IBM Navigator for i wizard to create logical partitions on your server.

Before you start to create logical partitions on your system, see the logical partition planning information for assistance. For instructions on performing a full system backup, see Backing up your system.

There are two ways to create logical partitions on IBM i:

  1. Setting up IBM i logical partitions in the HMC environment:

    In the HMC environment, you can create an IBM i logical partition that uses IBM i virtual I/O resources. You also can create a Virtual I/O Server logical partition and configure the IBM i client logical partition to use the virtual SCSI and virtual Ethernet resources of the Virtual I/O Server logical partition. You might need to enter a PowerVM™ Editions activation code to create a Virtual I/O Server logical partition on your server.

    For information about using a Hardware Management Console (HMC) to create and maintain logical partitions on a server, see the Logical partitioning topic in the IBM Power Systems Hardware Information Center.

  2. Setting up IBM i logical partitions using Virtual Partition Manager:

    The Virtual Partition Manager (VPM) is a partition management tool that supports the creation of partitions that use only virtual input/output (I/O) and does not require the Hardware Management Console or Systems Director Management Console. In addition to being able to manage Linux guest partitions, the VPM now supports creation and management of IBM i partitions.

Virtual Partition Manager supports the needs of small and medium customers that want to add simple Linux workloads to their server and want to isolate Linux and IBM i workloads into separate partitions. The Virtual Partition Manager supports environments with a hosting IBM i partition and up to four client Linux or IBM i partitions. In addition, the hosting IBM i partition must own and manage all of the I/O resources. The logical partition uses virtual I/O to access disk, tape, DVD, and Ethernet resources owned by the hosting partition. Assignment of physical I/O resources to client partitions and dynamic movement of virtual I/O resources is not supported. You have to power off the client partition to move the virtual I/O resources. Memory and processor resources can be added or removed when partition is powered on but that requires an IPL to take effect.

You can not use Virtual Partition Manager on an IBM i server that is configured using an HMC which means you have to disconnect your IBM i server from HMC before you are trying to use Virtual Partition Manager. You can only use Virtual Partition Manager on the hosting IBM i partition. PowerVM Standard or Enterprise edition is required to support four client partitions.

IBM Navigator for i provides graphical interface for Virtual Partition Manager. To create logical partition by IBM Navigator for i, follow these steps:

  1. In IBM Navigator for i navigation area, expend Configuration and Services.
  2. Select Create Partition to start the wizard.
  3. Follow the wizard instruction to create IBM i or Linux partition.

Similar to existing Virtual Partition Manager screens, IBM Navigator for i associates virtual Ethernet connections between client partitions and the hosting partition. This association is done by specifying the same VLAN ID for virtual Ethernet adapters in both the client and hosting partitions. As a new feature, IBM Navigator for i also creates and associates the required Network Server Description (NWSD) and Network Storage Space (NWSSTG) objects in the hosting partition. Since several options exist for implementing virtual Ethernet, IBM Navigator for i does not configure the connection to physical resources in the host partition.

Examples of how to configure the physical connection are documented in previous publications. Chapter 6 of the Redbook article Virtual Partition Manager - A guide to Planning and Implementation documents the Proxy ARP method. The section "Ethernet Layer-2 Bridging" section of the Redbook article Creating IBM i Client Partitions Using Virtual Partition Manager documents how to set up layer-2 bridging. As described above, the NWSD object will already have been created by IBM Navigator for i.

After creating a partition, you can install the operating system on that partition.