Installing the HMC virtual appliance on PowerVM (logical partition)

Learn how to install the Hardware Management Console (HMC) virtual appliance on a PowerVM® environment.

The HMC virtual appliance supports POWER9™ servers on firmware level FW910 or later. For more information, see Supported Linux® distributions for POWER8® and POWER9 Linux on Power® systems (https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/linuxonibm/liaam/liaamdistros.htm).

Notes:
  1. You cannot manage the server that hosts the HMC virtual appliance.
  2. You cannot manage the server that hosts another HMC virtual appliance which is managing the server that hosts this HMC virtual appliance.

    For example, HMC virtual appliance A is running on server A and HMC virtual appliance B is running on server B. HMC virtual appliance A cannot manage server B and HMC virtual appliance B cannot manage server A at the same time. One of the HMC virtual appliance can manage the other server, but both HMC virtual appliance cannot manage each other at the same time.

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Create automated HMC installation image (optional)

You can create an automated HMC installation image that automatically installs the HMC virtual appliance without prompting for the HMC Installallation wizard.

Note: The HMC virtual appliance on PowerVM does not provide graphics adapter support for adapters that are assigned to the partition. You can use a supported web browser to connect to the HMC for user interface support.
To create an automated HMC installation image, complete the following steps:
  1. Create two directories by running the following commands: mkdir -p oldiso and mkdir -p newiso.
  2. Mount the HMC installation image to the oldiso directory by running the following command: sudo mount -o loop <image_path> oldiso.
  3. Copy the contents of the oldiso directory to the newiso directory by running the following command: cp -r oldiso/* newiso.
  4. If the Grub configuration file (newiso/boot/grub/grub.cfg) has 2 lines that start with menuentry, then remove the first menuentry section by running the following command: sed -i '/\"Install Hardware Management Console\"/,+4d' newiso/boot/grub/grub.cfg.
  5. Edit the Grub file for the automated install by running the following command: sed -i 's/biosdevname=0/biosdevname=0 mode=auto optype=Install/' newiso/boot/grub/grub.cfg.
  6. Make the Grub file read-only by running the following command: sudo chown 0444 newiso/boot/grub/grub.cfg.
  7. Create a new HMC installation ISO by running the following command: mkisofs -o <new_iso_name> -V <ISO label> -f -r -T -udf --allow-limited-size --netatalk -chrp-boot -iso-level 4 -part -no-desktop -quiet newiso (where ISO label must be HMC-<hmc version release number>, for example HMC-8.0.870.0).
Note: For more information about setting up the Activation Engine and the configuration file, see Using the Activation Engine for the HMC virtual appliance.

Logical volume setup

To set up the logical volume, complete the following steps:
  1. Select a managed system.
  2. From the menu pod, select System Actions > Power VM > Virtual Storage.
  3. Select Manage System VIOS > Action > Manage Virtual Storage.
  4. Select the Virtual Disks tab.
  5. Click Create virtual disk and enter the following information:
    • Virtual disk name: The name of the virtual disk.
    • Storage pool name: The name of the storage pool.
    • Virtual disk size: The size of the virtual disk.
    • Assigned partition: The name of the logical partition.
    Note: A minimum of 160 GB disk space is required (500 GB disk space is recommended).

Installation media setup - create media library

To create a media library, complete the following steps:
  1. Select a managed system.
  2. From the menu pod, select System Actions > Power VM > Virtual Storage.
  3. Select Manage System VIOS > Action > Manage Virtual Storage.
  4. Select the Optical Devices tab.
  5. Click Create Library and enter the following information:
    • Storage pool: The name of the storage pool.
    • Media library size: The size of the media library.
  6. Click OK.

Installation media setup - upload media to VIOS

To upload media to Virtual I/O Server (VIOS), complete the following steps:
  1. Log in to VIOS.
  2. In VIOS root mode, run the following command: oem_setup_env.
  3. To allow NFS connection, run the following command: nfso -o nfs_use_reserved_ports=1.
  4. To mount the NFS into the local VIOS folder, run the following command: mount <server_ip>:/Mountpoint <local_folder>.
  5. To verify that the NFS mount includes your HMC installation ISO and Activation Engine configuration image (optional), run the following command: ls.

Installation media setup - link media to media library

To link media to the media library, complete the following steps:
  1. Navigate back to Manage System VIOS > Action > Manage Virtual Storage and select the Optical Devices tab.
  2. From the Virtual Optical Media section, select Add Media from the Actions menu.
  3. From the Add Virtual Media window, select Add existing file from VIOS filesystem and enter the following information:
    • Media name: The name of the media (for example, HMCInstall or AEDrive).
    • Optical media file name: The file name of the installation ISO file (for example, 01234567-ppc64ie.iso).
  4. Click OK.
  5. If you created an Activation Engine configuration image, repeat steps 3 - 4 to add the Activation Engine configuration image. Otherwise, continue to step 6.
  6. Verify that the optical media is uploaded to the media library by verifying that the media name is shown in available Virtual Optical Media list.

Logical partition setup

To set up the logical partition, complete the following steps:
  1. Select a managed system.
  2. From the menu pod, select System Actions > Partitions > Partitions.
  3. Click Create Partition and enter the following information:
    • Parititon Name: The name of the partition.
    • Partition ID: The ID of the partition.
    • Partition Type: Select the operating system (AIX/Linux or IBM i).
  4. Click OK.
  5. Allocate the number of processors and the amount of memory for the partition.
    Note: A minimum of four virtual processors and 8 GB of memory is required.
  6. From the menu pod, select Partition Actions > Virtual I/O > Virtual Networks.
  7. Click Attach Virtual Network and select the Show and attach new virtual ethernet adapters check box. From the table, select the virtual network adapters that you want to attach to the logical partition.
    Note: A maximum of four virtual network adapters is allowed.
  8. From the menu pod, select Partition Actions > Virtual I/O > Virtual Storage.
  9. From the Virtual Optical Device tab, click Add Virtual Optical Device.
  10. Enter the Device Name (for example, HMCInstall or AEDrive) and select the wanted Virtual I/O Server from the table.
    Note: Installing the AEDrive is optional.
  11. Click OK.
  12. Verify that the virtual optical devices that you added from step 10 is now listed in the table.
  13. From the Action menu, click Load.
  14. Select the media file to assign to the logical partition and click OK.
  15. Verify that the virtual optical devices that you loaded from step 13 is now listed in the table.

Starting the HMC virtual appliance

Note: When you install the HMC virtual appliance on a partition by using the HMC ISO image file, you will not have local graphical console access to the web user interface.
To start the HMC virtual appliance on PowerVM, complete the following steps:
  1. Select the managed partition.
  2. Open an active connection to the logical partition by selecting Actions > Console > Open Terminal Window.
  3. Activate the logical partition by selecting Actions > Activate.
  4. Select Activate (Normal) and Current Configuration.
  5. Click Finish.
  6. Switch to the terminal window.
  7. From the Boot menu, select 1 = SMS Menu.
  8. From the Main menu, select 5 = Select Boot Options.
  9. From the Multiboot menu, select 1 = Select Install/Boot Device.
  10. From the Select Device Type menu, select 5 = List all devices.
  11. Select the HMCInstall device based on the device location.
  12. Select 2. Normal Mode Boot.
  13. Select 1. Yes to confirm.
  14. Follow the onscreen instructions from the HMC Install wizard.
    Note: Skip this step if you used an automated HMC installation image.
  15. After the installation completes and the system starts, you must select a language from the language selection dialog box.
  16. Accept the license agreement.
    Note: Ensure that the command controller is ready to accept commands before you run any commands. For example, running the lshmc -V command until it succeeds.
  17. Log in as hscroot and use the chhmc command to configure the network.

    The following example shows the sequence of chhmc commands that can be used to configure the network and enable Secure Shell (SSH) and remote web access on the HMC.

    chhmc -c network -s modify -i ethX -a <hmc ip address> -nm <hmc network mask> --lparcomm on 
chhmc -c network -s modify -h <hmc hostname> -d <hmc domain name> -g <gateway ip> 
chhmc -c network -s add -ns <name server> -ds <domain search> 
chhmc -c ssh -s enable
chhmc -c ssh.name -s add -a <ip address> 
chhmc -c SecureRemoteAccess.name -s add -a <ip address> 
chhmc -c remotewebui -s enable -i ethX
hmcshutdown -r -t now
    • ethX is the network interface name to configure.
    • hmc ip address is the IP address of your HMC.
    • hmc network mask is the network mask of your HMC.
    • hmc hostname is the host name of your HMC.
    • hmc domain name is the domain name of your HMC.
    • gateway ip is the IP address of the gateway on your network.
    • name server is the name server address of your network.
    • domain search is the names of the domains that you want the HMC to search on.
    • To allow access on all IP addresses, use -a 0.0.0.0 -nm 0 in place of ip address.
    Note: When you use multiple virtual Ethernet adapters, run the command cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ethX on the HMC virtual appliance on each interface. Compare the media access control (MAC) address against what the HMC shows in the adapter view of the virtual network of the partition. You can click View Virtual Ethernet Adapter Settings for more information on the virtual Ethernet adapters. This step helps you determine the correct interface to use.
  18. Restart the system.