Hardware Management Console

The Hardware Management Console (HMC) is a hardware appliance that you can use to configure and control one or more managed systems. You can use the HMC to create and manage logical partitions and activate Capacity Upgrade on Demand. Using service applications, the HMC communicates with managed systems to detect, consolidate, and send information to service and support for analysis.

The HMC also provides terminal emulation for the logical partitions on your managed system. You can connect to logical partitions from the HMC itself, or you can set up the HMC so that you can connect to logical partitions remotely through the HMC. HMC terminal emulation provides a dependable connection that you can use if no other terminal device is connected or operational. HMC terminal emulation is useful during initial system setup, before you have configured your terminal of choice.

In this figure, you can see the logical partitions and the server firmware on the server. The server firmware is code that is stored in system flash memory on the server. The server firmware directly controls the resource allocations on the server and the communications between logical partitions on the server. The HMC connects with the server firmware and specifies how the server firmware allocates resources to the managed system.

If you use a single HMC to manage a server, and the HMC malfunctions or becomes disconnected from the server firmware, then the server continues to run, but you will not be able to change the logical partition configuration of the server. If desired, you can attach an additional HMC to act as a backup and to provide a redundant path between the server and service and support.

Partitioning using the HMC is supported on all IBM® Power Systems™ models, although some models require you to enter a PowerVM® Editions activation code before partitioning the managed system.