Partition Mobility process for HMC-managed systems

Learn about how the Hardware Management Console (HMC) moves an active or inactive logical partition from one server to another server.

The following table describes the steps that take place during the process of active and inactive Partition Mobility on the HMC.

Table 1. The steps involved in the process of active and inactive Partition Mobility on the HMC
Partition Mobility step	Active mobility step	Inactive mobility step
1. You ensure that all requirements are satisfied and all preparation tasks are completed.	X	X
2. You shut down the mobile partition.		X
3. You initiate Partition Mobility using the Partition Migration wizard on the HMC.	X	X
4. The HMC extracts the physical device description for each physical adapter on the Virtual I/O Server logical partitions on the source server. The HMC uses the extracted information to determine whether the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) partitions on the destination server can provide the mobile partition with the same virtual SCSI, virtual Ethernet, and virtual fiber channel configuration that exists on the source server. This operation includes verifying that the VIOS partitions on the destination server have enough available slots to accommodate the virtual adapter configuration of the mobile partition. The HMC uses all this information to generate a list of recommended virtual adapter mappings for the mobile partition on the destination server. Where possible, the HMC preserves the following configurations: Multipath I/O configurations. Virtual slot assignments for virtual server adapters on the VIOS partitions. User-defined names of the virtual target devices on the VIOS partitions. Partition Mobility does not preserve vtscsi`x` IDs. User-defined adapter IDs for virtual server adapters on the VIOS partitions. The HMC displays a list of recommended virtual adapter mappings (as well as all the possible virtual adapter mappings) for the mobile partition on the destination server. You can either use the virtual adapter mappings that are recommended by the HMC, or you can select different virtual adapter mappings for the mobile partition on the destination server.	X	X
5. The HMC prepares the source and destination environments for Partition Mobility. This preparation includes using the virtual adapter mappings from step 4 for mapping the virtual adapters on the mobile partition to the virtual adapters on the VIOS partitions on the destination server.	X	X
6. The HMC transfers the logical partition state from the source environment to the destination environment. This transfer includes all the partition profiles that are associated with the mobile partition. The HMC modifies the active partition profile of the mobile partition to reflect the new virtual adapter mappings on the destination server.	In active partition mobility, the following additional steps occur: The source mover service partition extracts the logical partition state information from the source server and sends it to the destination mover service partition over the network. The destination mover service partition receives the logical partition state information and installs it on the destination server.	X
7. The HMC suspends the mobile partition on the source server. The source mover service partition continues to transfer the logical partition state information to the destination mover service partition.	X
8. The hypervisor resumes the mobile partition on the destination server.	X
9. The HMC completes the migration. All resources that were consumed by the mobile partition on the source server are reclaimed by the source server: The HMC removes the virtual SCSI adapters and the virtual fiber channel adapters (that were connected to the mobile partition) from the source VIOS partitions. The HMC removes the virtual SCSI adapters, virtual Ethernet adapters, and virtual fiber channel adapters (that were connected to the mobile partition) from the partition profiles associated with the VIOS partitions on the source server. For a mobile partition that uses shared memory, the HMC deactivates the paging space device that was used by the mobile partition and releases it so that it becomes available for other shared memory partitions to use.	X	X
10. You activate the mobile partition on the destination server. (The processor and memory resources configured for the mobile partition remain unassigned until you activate the mobile partition on the destination server.)		X
11. You perform postrequisite tasks, such as adding dedicated I/O adapters to the mobile partition or adding the mobile partition to a partition workload group.	X	X