Installing from media

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

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.

Notes:

PowerVC uses the default network interface: eth0. To use a different network interface, set the environment variable, HOST_INTERFACE, before running the install script. For example: export HOST_INTERFACE=eth1.
PowerVC SDI versions 1.4.4 and 1.4.4.1 are supported on RHEL 7.6 ALT.

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.

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.

Perform the following steps to install PowerVC:

Configure the yum repository for the PowerVC install.
For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, some of the prerequisites for installing PowerVC are moved from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux OS media to an Optional Software channel that is accessed using the RHN connection.
1. Configure the yum repository by selecting and adding the new channel for Optional Software. For more information, see Adding the Optional and Supplementary Repositories..
2. Verify that yum is seeing the new optional repository file.
```
yum repolist
```
Notes:
- 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.
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-install-ppcle-1.4.4.0.tgz, where download_location is the directory where the tar file was downloaded to.
- For x86_64, extract the dvd_mount_point/powervc-install-x86-rhel-1.4.4.0.tgz, where dvd_mount_point is the directory where the iso image was mounted.
Change the directory to: extract location/powervc-1.4.4.0/, where extract location is the directory you extracted the tar file to in step 2.
Start the installation by using one of the following methods:

Note: You must perform these steps as root.
1. Run ./install to start the install. To verify that your environment meets all of the prerequisites, run ./install -t before starting the actual install.
  For the list of all available options, run ./install -h.
  
  The following screen is shown:
```
Select the edition to install.
1 - IBM PowerVC Standard
2 - IBM Cloud PowerVC Manager
9 - Exit
```
  Enter '2' on your keyboard.
  Note: Both Cloud PowerVC Manager and IBM Power® Virtualization Center Standard will be installed.
  - PowerVC prompts you with a list of files that would be modified during installation.
  - Confirm and choose to continue with the procedure.
2. Alternatively, you can perform silent installation by running the following command:
  ./install -s cloud
After you accept the license agreement, PowerVC is installed on the management server. An installation log file can be found in the following location: /opt/ibm/powervc/log.
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.

Note: 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.