Question & Answer
Question
When I open a console window (vterm) for an LPAR using the HMC, all I see is Open in progress followed by Open complete... When I look at AIX I see getty is running on /dev/console so why don't I see a login prompt in my vterm?
Cause
The AIX console device needs to be redefined after a Power server had previously been used as a stand-alone platform is then later connected to an HMC.
Answer
Run the following sequence of commands on the HMC (via ssh connection) and LPAR over a remote connection (telnet or ssh) to redefine the console device. This will require an outage on your LPAR to get everything set properly.
1. Check on server status for MDC
lssyscfg -r sys -F name,mfg_default_config
a. If the mfg_default_config value is a 1 then you are in MDC mode. If this is the case then the system's partition data will need to be initialized and the partition recreated.
(1) Shutdown the running LPAR
Note: before doing this, go into the properties task of the server and uncheck the option box that indicates to power off the server after the last partition is shutdown.
(2) Initialize partition data using the HMC GUI by navigating through following menus
(a) If using the older HMC Classic GUI (HMC v5 - v8.860)
Configuration ---> Manage Partition Data ---> Initialize
Configuration ---> Manage Partition Data ---> Initialize
(b) If using the HMC Enhanced GUI (HMC v8.820 - v10)
All Systems ---> Select System ---> Select View All Actions in Actions pull down menu ---> Manage Partition Data ---> Initialize
(3) After you initialize partition data then create a LPAR as follows
(a) If using the older HMC Classic GUI
Configuration ---> Create logical partition ---> AIX or Linux
(3) After you initialize partition data then create a LPAR as follows
(a) If using the older HMC Classic GUI
Configuration ---> Create logical partition ---> AIX or Linux
(b) If using the HMC Enhanced GUI
Use the Create Partition button when in Partitions view of the system.
(c) The wizard will guide you through the basic configuration steps
where you give the partition a name, the profile a name and then select
all system resources.
b. Activate the partition and use the Advanced Options function so you can over ride the boot mode to SMS
c. Open a console window and should see SMS menus once the LPAR boots into open firmware mode.
(1) You will want to go through the boot options the first time manually so you can verify that the LPAR is booting off the disk you want and to verify that the vterm is working as a console device.
2. Once you get the system out of MDC mode you still will need to configure AIX for HMC vterm. Following will help.
a. If the mfg_default_config value is 0 then proceed with following commands on the LPAR.
rmdev -dl vty0
rmdev -dl vty1
rmdev -dl vty2
rmdev -dl vsa0
rmdev -dl vsa1
rmdev -dl vsa2
odmdelete -q name=vty0 -o CuDv
odmdelete -q name=vty1 -o CuDv
odmdelete -q name=vty2 -o CuDv
odmdelete -q name=vsa0 -o CuDv
odmdelete -q name=vsa1 -o CuDv
odmdelete -q name=vsa2 -o CuDv
odmdelete -q attribute=syscons -o CuAt
Note: if you get a message about one of the vty devices not existing then just ignore and move on. However, if you get messages that indicated none of the vty devices existed then please call IBM Support so they can help you do more discovery.
b. Now need to update the boot image so as not to have stale console related information on them.
sync; sync; sync
savebase
bosboot -ad ipldevice
3. At this point you need to reboot the LPAR so that the console device path will be discovered by the hardware. Open a terminal window on the HMC so you when prompted to set the console device you can respond.
a. If you are not able to reboot at this time then you can attempt following to try and set the console in AIX. This is not a fool-proof work around so if it fails then perform the reboot.
cfgmgr
lsdev -Cc tty ---> verify that vty0 exists.
chcons /dev/vty0
penable vty0
Check to see if you get a login prompt on the console.
b. You will still need to reboot for permanent change to take affect and will still need to define the console device when the LPAR boots.
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Document Information
Modified date:
19 July 2022
UID
isg3T1021205