Getting started: Creating a new partition and starting your Linux server

This topic provides a quick review of the procedure for creating and starting a new partition to host a single image of the Linux® operating system. Links to more detailed information are included in the procedure steps.

Before you begin

  • Verify the intended use of DPM-enabled systems with your system planner, so you know which system is the appropriate one for you to use for your Linux server and the business applications that it will support. You also need to know which of the system features and resources (adapters, processors, memory, and so on) that your server and its business applications require.
  • After you know which system to use, and complete capacity planning for the applications that you intend to run on the Linux server, you can list the system resources that you need to assign to your partition. Depending on the IT roles and operating procedures at your installation, you might have to work with the network administrator, storage administrator, or security administrator before you create the partition.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the Hardware Management Console (HMC), using a customized user ID with the predefined System Programmer Tasks role.
  2. On the main HMC page, expand the Systems Management node to view managed systems, and select the DPM-enabled system on which you want to create a partition for your Linux server.
    Figure 1. Portion of the main HMC page, with the Systems Management node expanded, and a system and the New Partition task highlighted
    Screen capture of new HMC main page design, with the Systems Management node expanded, a system selected, and the New Partition task highlighted
  3. Use the New Partition wizard to create a partition.
    You can access this task from the main HMC page by selecting the Systems Management node and expanding the Configuration task group; by selecting a specific DPM-enabled system; or by selecting the task in the Tasks index.
    For more detailed guidance and instructions, see the following topics:
    1. Open the New Partition task.

      This action opens the New Partition window, which is shown in Figure 2.

      Figure 2. Welcome page of the New Partition task in basic mode
      Screen capture of the navigation pane and Welcome page of the New Partition task

      The New Partition task offers two modes through which you can create a partition: basic and advanced. For a comparison of the two modes and the implications of switching between them, see Selecting which New Partition task mode to use.

    2. Complete the required fields on the task pages to create the new partition, depending on the requirements of the applications that your Linux server will host.

      In Figure 2, pages that contain required fields are denoted with an asterisk. For step-by-step instructions for using the basic mode to complete the information on these pages, see Creating a new partition.

    3. Depending on the task mode you are using, click Finish or OK to create the partition.
      A progress indicator is displayed until DPM finishes creating the partition.

      When it finishes creating the partition definition, DPM opens the validation window, which displays a message indicating that your partition has been created, and lists more tasks that you can use to work with the new partition.

  4. Use the Start task to start the partition.
    You can open the Start task by clicking the link on the Validation window, or through two other methods shown in Figure 3.
    Figure 3. Methods of starting a new partition
    Screen capture of the System Management view with the new partition selected
    • One way to access the Start task is to select the new partition and click the double-arrow icon in the Name field to display the cascading task menu. Then expand the Daily group, and click Start.
    • Another way to access the Start task is to select the new partition, expand the Daily category in the Tasks area, and click Start.

    A new window opens to display the progress of the start operation. Figure 4 shows a portion of the Start window, with its progress indicators. In addition to displaying a progress indicator, the window also contains a Details column with messages that are updated as the start process continues. These messages indicate the progress of configuring partition resources and initializing the operating system or hypervisor to run in the partition.

    Figure 4. Portion of the Start window for a new partition named andr_test
    Screen capture of the Start window, displaying progress indicators

    When the start process completes, the Details column contains a success message, along with an Open Console link through which you can enter operating system commands.

  5. Click the Open Console link to open the Integrated ASCII Console task, through which you can log in to the operating system that is running on the partition.

    After you log in, you can enter commands to view the processor, memory, and other resources that you configured for the partition. For example, Figure 5 shows a sample Linux lscpu command and the resulting display of configured processor resources.

    Figure 5. Sample Linux command and display of configured processor resources
    Screen capture of Linux commands and display in the Open ASCII Console task

Results

The partition and the Linux server are ready to support business applications.