Installing from media

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This topic describes how to install PowerVC on your management server using install media.

Before you begin

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
Be aware of the following considerations when you install other software.
  • It is recommended that PowerVC is the only server application that is 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 recommended not to version lock RPMs except when directed to do so by IBM® support.
  • Do not install any third party RPM packages before you install PowerVC as it might cause conflicts and leave out certain packages that are necessary for successful installation of PowerVC.

  • Also consider performance implications to PowerVC and to the other software when you install other software on the same instance. For example, PowerVC memory usage might 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 as per the requirement.

  • It is recommended not to use these commands as it erases PowerVC packages and causes functional impacts.
    • RHEL OS

      yum install -y <package_name> --allowerasing

      dnf install -y <package_name> --allowerasing

    • SLES OS

      zypper install --force-resolution -y <package_name>

  • Before you proceed with any package operation such as installation or upgrade operation on a PowerVC system with Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) or any other external recommendation, make sure to check with the IBM team if an alternative approach is available.
  • Do not remove version locks of PowerVC related packages except when directed to do so by IBM support.
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. After the existing version is uninstalled, run the cleanup script at PowerVC 2.3.0 cleanup script, reboot the system, and then install PowerVC 2.3.0.
  • Review the hardware and software requirements.
  • For RHEL and SLES, version 2.3.0 installation is supported on both single node and multinode environments.
  • Before you install or upgrade, make sure that the priority number of the PowerVC repository is higher than the RHEL or SLES system OS repository. The repositories that PowerVC creates have 90 as the priority in which 1 is the highest and 99 is the lowest.
  • Make sure that you disable IPv6 before you proceed with the installation procedure. For details, see Disable IPv6 topic.
  • While you install PowerVC 2.3.0, it is recommend that you upgrade the NovaLink version to 2.3.0 first.
  • Make sure that you install the net-tools package and the rsync package before you start the installation of PowerVC.
Note: The Python 3.11 package is installed as a part of the PowerVC 2.3.0 installation. If Python 3.11 is preinstalled in your system, the PowerVC 2.3.0 installation might fail.

Procedure

Perform the following steps to install PowerVC:

  1. Configure these repositories for RHEL and SLES based on the environment.
    1. Yum repository to install PowerVC 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 the RPMs libknet1 and mysql-libs.
    2. Zypper repository to install PowerVC through SLES 15 SP5 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
      • SLE-Module-Packagehub-Subpackage
    3. Zypper repository to install PowerVC through SLES 15 SP5 SAP Edition 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
      • SLE-Product-SAP
      • SLE-Module-Packagehub-Subpackage
    Notes:
    • To make sure that there is no version mismatch, enable only the listed repos and disable any other ropes.
    • Make sure that you have the Java™ Runtime Environment (JRE) on the management server.
    • PowerVC installer does not support enabling an EPEL repository on the management server. Also, enabling an EPEL repository on the management server after you install PowerVC and performing system updates might affect PowerVC functions.
    • For installation on SLES 15 SP5 and SLES 15 SP5 SAP Edition, make sure 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 2.2.1, MariaDB and MariaDB-galera packages are not shipped with the installer. PowerVC uses the SUSE provided packages. To obtain the packages and dependencies, make sure to enable the SUSE Package Hub repo so that the PowerVC installer can pick the packages during the installation process. The packages must not be preinstalled as the PowerVC installer automatically installs the packages.
    • Ensure that the repository that PowerVCinstaller uses to fetch and install Python 3.11 is enabled.
    • To use the same set of virtual machines when you uninstall one version of the PowerVC and reinstall the same or higher version of PowerVC, run the following commands:
      1. rpm -e --nodeps ansible-core
      2. rpm -e --nodeps python3-jinja2
      3. yum clean all
      4. yum install python3-jinja2
  2. 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.
  3. Change the directory to: extract location/powervc-opsmgr-<version>, where extract location is the directory you extracted the tar file to in step 2.
  4. 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 that blocks ports that PowerVC requires, PowerVC does not work until the configuration of that firewall 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.