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 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 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

  • 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. If the existing version is PowerVC 2.2.x, run the cleanup script that is at PowerVC 2.3.2 cleanup script after the existing version is uninstalled. The cleanup activity is not required if the existing version is PowerVC 2.3.0 or later. Once the existing version of PowerVC is uninstalled reboot the system, and then install PowerVC 2.3.2.
  • Review the hardware and software requirements.
  • For RHEL, version 2.3.3 installation is supported on both single node and multinode environments.
  • For RHEL, if a local repository is created during installation, it must be in the following format:
    • rhel-<version>-for-<arch>-baseos-rpms
    • rhel-<version>-for-<arch>-appstream-rpms
    For example, rhel-8-for-ppc64le-baseos-rpms and rhel-8-for-ppc64le-appstream-rpms.
  • Before you install or upgrade, make sure that the priority number of the PowerVC repository is higher than the RHEL 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 2.3.2, it is recommend that you upgrade the NovaLink version to 2.3.2 first.
  • Make sure that you install the net-tools package and the rsync package. Update the yum update sqlite sqlite-libs library 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 or later installation. If Python 3.11 is preinstalled in your system, the PowerVC 2.3.0 or later installation might fail.

Procedure

  1. Configure these repositories for RHEL 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.
    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.
    • 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.
  2. Open a web browser and navigate to the Entitled Software Support website.
    1. Sign in with your IBMid.
    2. Select My entitled software on the left.
    3. Under Brand selection on the right, if Power (AIX) is not selected, perform the following steps:
      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 IBMid to register your customer number, yours becomes the primary ID. However, if yours is not the first IBMid with this customer number, you are forwarded to the primary contact, who needs to approve your IBMid.
    5. Select the customer number that you want to work with and click Continue.
    6. Select Software Downloads on the left, and click the required option.
      • For By category option.
        1. In Operating System, select AIX, then click Continue under Version.
        2. Select the edition of PowerVC that you want to download and click Continue at the end of the page.
        3. Click hide/show next to the product you want to download. The available features are shown.
        4. Click hide/show next to the feature that you want to download. The available files are shown.
        5. Select the files that you want to download and click Continue at the end of the page.
      • For By product option.
        1. In the Product drop-down, select 5765-VC2 (PowerVC for Private Cloud).
        2. Click Add Product.
        3. Click Continue, then select 02.02.00 packages.
        4. Click Continue again. Read the license terms, and agree.
        5. Select download director or https, then click Continue.
  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>-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.
    Install the OpsMgr utility and create a cluster before you start the PowerVC installation 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 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.