Managing existing virtual machines

You can manage existing virtual machines with IBM® Power® Virtualization Center. After they are added to PowerVC, you can remove them from management at any time. Removing them does not destroy the virtual machine.

You can choose to manage existing virtual machines when you register the device or by following these steps after registration. If you plan to capture and deploy the virtual machine, you must first add the virtual machine to your PowerVC environment. Supported volumes and ports associated with the virtual machine will be automatically included for management.

Before you add an existing virtual machine to PowerVC, review the information in Requirements for adding existing virtual machines.

When you import a virtual machine, it is automatically connected to the correct network. If no network is found, PowerVC creates one in the current project. When you are managing a new virtual machine, PowerVC associates the virtual machine with the first valid Shared Ethernet Adapter (SEA) network existing with the matching VLAN for the virtual machine. If PowerVC cannot determine the IP addresses of virtual machines that are being imported, networks are created as DHCP and the network interfaces will not have an IP address. If you change the network to static, you can edit the virtual machine's network interface to add an IP address for the virtual network interface. Recording the appropriate IP address prevents other deploys from using this IP address.

To add existing or remanage virtual machines to PowerVC, follow these steps.

1. In the PowerVC GUI, navigate to Hosts List in the Hosts menu.
2. Click an existing host to open the details page.
3. Click the Action drop-down and select Manage Existing.

   Alternatively, click VM List in the Virtual Machines menu, then click Manage Existing.

4. In the Manage Existing page, to import specific virtual machines, click Select specific virtual machines, select the virtual machine(s) from the list, then click Import.
5. To import all supported virtual machines, select Manage all fully-supported virtual machines, then click Import.
6. Click VM List in the Virtual Machines menu, then double-click the virtual machine.
7. In the VM details page, click Actions > Edit details to specify details such as the operating system type and boot volumes.

   A volume from a DS8000 storage provider cannot be attached to a managed virtual machine if the operating system has not been set.

8. To stop managing virtual machines, navigate to VM List, select the virtual machine and click Unmanage. This action does not destroy the virtual machine.

If you import another virtual machine that uses the same VLAN and virtual switch, PowerVC connects it to the previously created network connects it to the previously created network.

When you unmanage a virtual machine, PowerVC retains the port and network information so that if you manage it again, the same networking information is used. If the virtual machine is associated with a shared network, you can manage the virtual machine into a different project than it had been in. In this case, the port is moved to the new project.