Deploying a system by using a system template

You can deploy systems by using system templates that are available in the template library of the Hardware Management Console (HMC). The Deploy System from Template wizard guides you to provide specific information about the target system that is required to complete the deployment on the selected system.

1. In the navigation pane, click System resources.
   1. Click Systems. The Systems page is displayed.
   2. In the work pane, click the system to view the properties of the system.
   3. In the work pane, select the system and click Create > Deploy System from Template. You can choose only one system at a time. Alternatively, click the server name to view properties of the server. On the system properties window, expand System Actions > Deploy System from Template. When you deploy a template on the system, a system data check operation is performed on the system that you selected. To check the status of a system, select a server from the list of servers and click Reset.
2. If the check operation displays warning or error messages, you can select another template from the template library. If the chosen template is compatible with the target system and no warning or error messages are displayed, or when the displayed warning message is acceptable, click Next to continue with the deployment. If the target system has logical partitions, you will be prompted with a message that indicates that the logical partition and the current system settings will be deleted which cannot be recovered and whether you want to continue with the deployment. Click Yes to continue with the deployment, or No to exit the wizard.
   Alternatively, you can also select a system and click Templates > Template Library. Go to step 5.
3. If you choose to deploy the template form the template library, click the System tab and select a template from the list of templates. Click Reset. If the check operation displays warning or error messages, you can select another template from the template library. If the chosen template is compatible with the target system and no warning or error messages are displayed, or when the displayed warning message is acceptable, click Next to continue with the deployment. If the target system has any logical partitions, you will be prompted with a message that indicates that the logical partitions will be deleted and whether you want to continue with the deployment. Click Yes to continue with the deployment, or No to exit the wizard.
4. In the SR-IOV Adapter Settings page, you can select the single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) capable adapter.
   You can assign a logical port from an SR-IOV adapter that is in shared mode to a Virtual I/O Server (VIOS). By default, the adapters are in the dedicated mode.
   1. Click Shared to change the mode to the shared mode.
   2. Click Configure.
   3. In the SR-IOV Adapter Settings area, you can view or change the settings of each physical port on the SR-IOV adapter.
   4. Click Next.
5. If the chosen template is compatible with the target system, the VIOS Configuration Summary page is displayed. You can optionally change the VIOS name. Click Next.
6. In the Physical I/O page, complete the following steps:
   1. In the Physical I/O Adapters area, you can choose one or more Virtual I/O Servers to which you want to assign physical I/O adapters. You can view the adapters that are available in other drawers of the system by selecting the drawer in the View adapters in field. You can choose not to assign any physical I/O adapters to the VIOS by selecting the Unassigned option.
      Note:

      • The HMC communicates with the target system and provides a list of physical I/O adapters that can be assigned to a VIOS. You can assign each adapter to a single VIOS, you need not assign all of the adapters.
      • If you are using a captured system template from HMC V9.1.910, or earlier, and if the template contains captured physical I/O adapter information, the physical I/O adapter information captured from the system during the capture operation is not used by the HMC. The HMC checks for the available physical I/O adapters on the destination servers that can be assigned to the Virtual I/O Servers. The available physical I/O adapters are listed in the Physical I/O page, and you can choose a physical I/O adapter for assignment to the Virtual I/O Servers from this list. This behavior is also applicable when you do not want to use the captured I/O information (not selecting the Use Captured I/O Information check box in the Physical I/O page).
      • If the template that you use for deployment does not contain any VIOS, the wizard displays only the System Configuration Progress, and the Configuration Summary pages. The Configuration Summary page displays read-only information about the settings as defined in the template. You can review these settings, and click Next to view the System Configuration Progress page to start the deployment process.
      • If PowerVM® is already configured on the system ( the factory default configuration with all resources assigned to the logical partition, a message is displayed that indicates that a partition is already present in the system. You must reset the system manually before restarting the system deployment.
      • Slots that contain cable cards are non-partitionable and cannot be assigned to the VIOS. Therefore, the Physical I/O adapter configuration page does not display slots that contain cable cards although the cable cards are associated with the system.
   2. In the Hardware Virtualized I/O area, you can assign logical ports to a physical port of an SR-IOV capable adapter. Details about the adapters that are available such as the adapter type are displayed. RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) logical ports are displayed if RoCE logical ports are available.
      • If you use captured I/O information, this page displays the list of adapters assigned for the configuration.
      • If you are not using captured I/O information, you can select a value for the Physical Port, Label, Sub-label field and you can specify a value for the Capacity field. You can complete this step for each of the Virtual I/O Servers that are listed.
   3. Click OK.
      The sum of the percentage capacity values for all the configured logical ports on a physical port must be less than or equal to 100%. To minimize the configuration effort when you add more logical ports, you can reserve some capacity for additional logical ports.
7. In the System Configuration Progress page, when you click Start, the system configuration starts and you can view the progress of the system configuration and a message that indicates successful configuration is displayed upon completion.
8. When the system update completes and when the VIOS partition is created, you can click the Next tab to install the VIOS image.
   Note: This step might take some time, especially when you have to restart the system.
9. In the VIOS Installation Configuration page, you can select the Installation Method. You can also change the configuration values of the VIOS partitions that are listed. By clicking Advanced Settings, you can change the adapter speed, adapter duplex, VLAN tag priority, and the VLAN tag identifier default settings. Click Next.
   Note: You can install the VIOS from a NIM server, a management console image, a manual console session, or from an image on a USB device. The fields that require data vary depending on the installation method that you choose. The following options are available depending on the installation method:

   • When you install the VIOS from a NIM server, you must specify the server IP address. The HMC must be able to connect to the NIM server.
   • When you install the VIOS from an image repository, you must specify the HMC IP address and the VIOS image name.
   • When you install the VIOS from a management console, you must specify the boot mode.
   • When you install the VIOS from a USB device, ensure that the USB device has the VIOS image that you want to install. You must specify the HMC IP address, and select the VIOS image from the list of VIOS images. All VIOS images that are save in the USB device are listed.

   After you select the installation method, you must also specify an install adapter, the port number, and the VIOS IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway. Additionally, you can view the MAC address of the system when you select the NIM server installation option. You can optionally change the adapter speed, adapter duplex, VLAN tag priority, and the default settings of the VLAN tag identifier by clicking Advanced Settings. You can complete this step for each of the listed Virtual I/O Servers.
10. In the VIOS Installation Progress page, when you click Start, the VIOS software is installed on the system. To view the progress of the VIOS installation, click Monitor vterm. A message that indicates successful configuration is displayed when the installation is complete.
11. After the VIOS image is installed and after the RMC connection is established for all the Virtual I/O Servers, you can review the license agreement and click Accept all VIOS Licenses to accept the VIOS license agreement.
12. In the VIOS Network Bridge Configuration page, you can change the values of the listed network bridges. Click Next.
    Note: A network bridge represents the Shared Ethernet Adapter (SEA) and trunk adapter that services a set of externally visible virtual networks. For redundant networks, the network bridge represents the matched set of Shared Ethernet Adapters and trunk adapters on both of the Virtual I/O Servers.

    In the NetBridge area of the Network Configuration page, you can view a table that contains the available network adapters and ports that are assigned to the installed Virtual I/O Servers. Each VIOS that is installed and is associated with a Network Bridge in the template, has a separate table. You can select at least one port to create the Shared Ethernet Adapter for that VIOS, or select more than one physical port per VIOS, or choose to create a Link Aggregation Device from the ports that are selected on a VIOS. A link aggregation device also known as an EtherChannel device, is a network port-aggregation technology that allows several Ethernet adapters to be aggregated. The adapters that are aggregated then act as a single Ethernet device. Link aggregation provide more throughput over a single IP address than a single Ethernet adapter. When you are using a captured template for the system deployment, the ports and Create Link Aggregation Device might already be selected.

13. In the VIOS Virtual Storage Configuration page, you can associate a VIOS to a shared storage pool. You can configure the Reserved Storage Device Pool, and the media repository volume group. Click Next.
    Note: You can assign a VIOS to a shared storage pool cluster or assign it later. A shared storage pool cluster provides distributed storage access to the VIOS partitions in the cluster. You can also configure a Reserved Storage Device Pool. A Reserved Storage Device Pool has reserved storage devices that are also called paging space devices and is similar to a Shared Memory Pool of memory size 0 bytes.

    When you configure a reserved storage pool, the Deploy System from Template wizard page displays the available Reserved Storage Devices. You can select an available device from the list of devices to create the Reserved Storage Device Pool. You must select which VIOS should be the first and second paging VIOS. A paging VIOS is a VIOS partition that is assigned to the Shared Memory Pool and provides access to the paging space devices for the logical partitions that are assigned to the Shared Memory Pool.

    In the Media Repository Volume Groups area, an editable field that contains the Media Repository name and a table that contains the available storage devices to assign to the Volume Groups is displayed. You can also configure a Media Repository.

14. In the I/O Progress page page, when you click Start, the configuration process starts and you can view the I/O configuration. You can click Next, after you see a message that indicates successful installation.
15. In the Summary page, you can view a summary of the changes. Click Finish.
    Your system is now fully deployed based on the configuration settings that were specified in the template.

    Note: If the configuration is unsuccessful, you must exit the Deploy System from Template wizard and restart the system deployment. You can exit the wizard by clicking Finish.

    • You cannot deploy an incomplete template.
    • If the deploy operation fails immediately after a machine data reset, all the current configuration of the target system is destroyed and you cannot restore the system to the previous state.
    • If the deploy operation fails, the deploy system template wizard creates a VIOS and a message is displayed that indicates that the deployment competed with errors. The VIOS that was created cannot be rolled back. You must clean up the deployment manually or use the Manage PowerVM functionality available in the HMC to assign the network or storage to the VIOS that was created.