Installing from download

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This topic describes how to install PowerVC on your management server by using tar files obtained from the download site.

Before you install PowerVC, ensure that all of the hardware and software prerequisites are met and that your environment is configured correctly. Also, ensure that you prepare the management server and install the supported version of Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® (RHEL) Server and SLES on it.

Installing other software
It is recommended that PowerVC is the only server application hosted on the virtual machine. However, PowerVC can generally coexist with other software on the same instance, assuming that there is no resource or dependency conflict between PowerVC and the other software. Potential conflicts include port contention, user namespace, file system capacity, firewall settings, and so on. It is not recommended that you version lock any RPMs except when directed to do so by IBM® support.
Do not install any third party RPM packages prior to installing PowerVC as it might cause conflicts leaving out certain packages that are necessary for successful installation of PowerVC.

You should also consider performance implications to PowerVC and to the other software when installing other software on the same instance. For example, PowerVC memory usage may grow and cause problems with applications that coexist with PowerVC.

PowerVC resource requirements are sized assuming that PowerVC is the only workload that is running on the management instance. If other applications are using resources, adjust the sizing accordingly.

Install Considerations
Consider the following before you start with installation procedure.
  • Make sure that the managed hosts are on IBM POWER8® or later.
  • If you have any previous version of PowerVC installed, take a backup, copy the backup file to a custom location, and then uninstall the existing version. Reboot the system and install PowerVC 2.1.1.
  • Review the hardware and software requirements.
  • It is recommended to install OpsMgr iFix IT44600 followed by PowerVC iFix IT44505 for the latest fixes in PowerVC 2.1.1.1.
  • For RHEL and SLES, PowerVC 2.1.1 installation is supported on both single node and multinode environments.
  • Before you install PowerVC 2.1.1 on RHEL 8.8 or RHEL 9.2, make sure you install OpsMgr iFix IT43710. Then install PowerVC iFix IT43868 for the latest fixes.
  • Make sure you disable IPv6 before proceeding with install procedure. For details, see Disable IPv6 topic.
  • While installing PowerVC 2.1.1, we recommend you upgrade NovaLink version to 2.1.1 first.
  • Make sure you install the net-tools package and the rsync package before you start the installation of PowerVC.

Installing PowerVC

  1. Configure these repositories for RHEL and SLES respectively based on the environment.
    1. Yum repository for PowerVC install through RHN and make sure that the following repos are enabled.
      • AppStream
      • BaseOS
      • Supplementary
      • High Availability (HA repo is not available with standard RHEL subscription. For subscription details, see Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® High Availability Add-On ).
      • Codeready Builder (CRB) (for RHEL 9.x only) with these RPMs, libknet1 and mysql-libs.
    2. Zypper repository for PowerVC install through SLES 15 SP3 and make sure that the following repos are enabled.
      • SLE-Module-Basesystem
      • SLE-Module-Desktop-Applications
      • SLE-Module-Development-Tools
      • SLE-Module-Legacy
      • SLE-Module-Public-Cloud
      • SLE-Module-Server-Applications
      • SLE-Module-Web-Scripting
      • SLE-Product-HA
      • SLE-Product-SLES
      • https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/network/<SLE_15/ network>
      • https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/network:/utilities/<SLE_15/ network_utilities>
    Notes:
    • It is recommended to enable only the listed repos and disable other repos to make sure that there is no version mismatch.
    • Make sure you have Java Runtime Environment (JRE) on the management server.
    • PowerVC installer does not support enabling EPEL repository on the management server. Also, enabling EPEL repository on the management server after installing PowerVC and performing system updates might effect PowerVC functionality.
    • For installation on SLES 15 SP3, ensure that the repositories are properly configured. For more information, see Adding Repositories section in SUSE documentation.
    • In PowerVC controller nodes, make sure a long hostname or fully qualified domain name (FQDN) is fewer than 60 characters in length.
    • Ansible 2.9 is the supported version, which is shipped along with PowerVC installer starting 2.1.1 release.
    • On RHEL 9.x virtual machines, reinstalling PowerVC 2.1.1 after uninstalling PowerVC 2.1.1 or a previous version is not supported.
  2. Open a web browser and navigate to the Entitled Software Support website.
    1. Sign in with your IBM ID.
    2. Select My entitled software on the left.
    3. Under Brand selection on the right, if Power (AIX) is not already selected, do the following:
      1. Select Power (AIX) and click the right arrow ( > ).
      2. Click Continue on the Brand selection warning.
    4. If you have not yet done so, click Register IBM customer number on the left. If you are the first IBM ID to register your customer number, yours becomes the primary ID. However, if yours is not the first IBM ID with this customer number, you are forwarded to the primary contact, who needs to approve your IBM ID.
    5. Select the customer number you want to work with and click Continue.
    6. Select Software Downloads on the left.
    7. For Operating System, select AIX, then click Continue under Version.
    8. Select the edition of PowerVC that you want to download and click Continue at the bottom of the page.
    9. Click hide/show next to the product you want to download. The available features are shown.
    10. Click hide/show next to the feature that you want to download. The available files are shown.
    11. Select the files that you want to download and click Continue at the bottom of the page.
  3. Extract the tar file that matches your environment to the location you want to run the installation script from:
    • For ppc64le, extract download_location/powervc-opsmgr-<rhel or sles>-ppcle-<powervc_version>.tgz, where download_location is the directory where the tar file was downloaded to.
    • For x86_64, extract the dvd_mount_point/powervc-opsmgr-rhel-x86-<powervc_version>.tgz, where dvd_mount_point is the directory where the iso image was mounted.
  4. Change the directory to: extract location/powervc-opsmgr-<powervc_version>, where extract location is the directory you extracted the tar file to in step 3.
    You must install OpsMgr utility and create a cluster before starting the PowerVC install procedure. For details, refer to Initiate installation through PowerVC operations manager topic.
  5. After the installation is complete, it is recommended that you visit Fix Central to download and install any fix packs that are available. For more information see the Getting fixes from Fix Central topic.
    Notes:
    • If you have a firewall blocking ports that PowerVC requires, PowerVC will not work until that firewall's configuration is updated. Refer to Ports used by PowerVC for more information.
    • To maintain PowerVC cluster consistency, restart controller node one at a time. Make sure that you allow 30 minutes before you restart the next node.