How to Boot VIOS to Maintenance Mode via HMC GUI using the Optical Device on the Managed System

1. VIOS bootable media

Note 1: In order to boot a VIOS partition into maintenance mode for system recovery, VIOS bootable media is required, such as DVD or USB flash drive.  The VIOS bootable media needs to match the VIOS release installed on disk. For example, if the VIOS partition is running version 4.1.0.X, use a 4.1.0.X bootable image.  Failure to use appropriate bootable media may lead to library or symbol resolution errors after the rootvg volume group is imported and a shell is started.  Examples of VIOS bootable media include: 

A. DVD of the VIOS Installation Software 

This includes installation media that came with the POWER system or VIOS Installation ISO image downloaded from the Entitled Systems Support (ESS) website and burned to an optical DVD  media, see How to Obtain Installation Software for PowerVM Virtual I/O Server.

Note 2: Power9 and newer Power Systems hardware no longer include a built-in optical DVD drive.  An external USB-attached drive may be required.  It is recommended to use an external USB-attached thumb drive or an external USB DVD drive.  

B. NON_AUTOINSTALL mksysb image

C. Bootable USB flash drive allocated to the VIOS partition.  

For details on how to create a bootable USB flash drive using VIOS installation image from ESS, go to PowerVM VIOS 3.1 Installation Using USB Flash Drive.  Once you get to the "Welcome to Base Operating System Installation and Maintenance" menu, continue with this document and skip to step "8.  Select option 3. Start Maintenance Mode for System Recovery" 

IMPORTANT: A VIOS reboot will impact all clients hosted by the VIOS being rebooted. To minimize the impact to the clients, you must ensure all clients' network and storage is redundant though a second VIOS.  If clients are served by a single VIOS, a maintenance window needs to be scheduled to shut down the client partitions before booting the VIOS to maintenance mode.

PROCEDURE

1. Load the bootable media (DVD 1 of 2) in the optical device.

2. Shut down the VIOS partition

Log in to the HMC GUI as hscroot. In left navigation:
> Click System Management
> Servers 
> Select Managed System name. This option lists the partition names on the right navigation.
> Select VIOS partition name
> Click Tasks 
> Operations 
> Shutdown
> Select Operating System

3. Activate the VIOS partition to the SMS Main menu.

> Select VIOS partition name
> Click Tasks 
> Operations 
> Activate
> Profile
> Click Advanced > Change 'Boot mode' to SMS > Click OK
> Select 'Open a terminal window or console session' > Click OK

Example of SMS Main Menu

4. From the SMS Main Menu, set the optical device as the first boot device by selecting:

> option 5. Select Boot Options
> option 2. Configure Boot Device Order
> option 6. Display Current Setting. This option shows the Current Boot Sequence. Take note of this information. (If the VIOS has SAN-attached storage, it may take a few minutes to scan the fibre channel adapters).
> Hit ESC key to go back to the previous menu
> select option 7. Restore Default Setting to set the optical device as the first boot device, as shown below:

5. Exit SMS

> Hit x key to exit SMS
> Select option 1. Yes. This causes the boot process to read from the bootable DVD image, denoted by the 'boot device' path ending with ...bootfile.exe as shows below:

The next screen will present the volume group ID(s) to select from.

12. Select the desire option. This will depend on the purpose for doing the maintenance mode boot.

1) Access this Volume Group and start a shell

This option attempts to import the VIOS rootvg volume group and mount VIOS core filesystems as shown below:

This option it typically used to do VIOS maintenance or recovery procedures that are not possible to be done through a normal padmin login.  For example, padmin's password was lost and needs to be reset padmin or the VIOS partition is failing to boot.

2) Access this Volume Group and start a shell before mounting filesystems

This option can be use in situations where VIOS rootvg filesystem integrity is questionable and filesystem check (fsck) may need to be performed.