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  • 1.  Changing IBM i partitions under VPM control to HMC control

    Posted Wed March 05, 2025 03:11 AM
    Edited by Hideyuki Yahagi Thu March 06, 2025 12:59 AM

    We currently have 4 IBM i partitions under VPM control on a Power S914 and would like to convert the S914 to HMC managed when we purchase new S1012 and HMC.

    I am looking for a procedure to change IBM i partitions under VPM control to HMC control without initializing the partitions. I would appreciate any examples or procedures to accomplish it.

    Thank you for your help.



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    Hideyuki Yahagi
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  • 2.  RE: Changing IBM i partitions under VPM control to HMC control

    Posted Thu March 06, 2025 02:04 AM

    VPM and HMC are mutually exclusive on the same server so you can either migrate (backup/restore) all your current setup to new P10 and stay with VPM or use HMC and create new LPAR layout using PowerVM (VIOS) or dedicated I/O resources for each partition (expensive approach) and backup/restore partions one by one.



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    Igor Novotny
    Principal Consultant
    MHM Computer, a.s.
    Prague 15
    00420602369375
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Changing IBM i partitions under VPM control to HMC control

    Posted Thu March 06, 2025 06:54 AM

    Never tried that. For sure you can have IBMI server and client partions under HMC the same way you have with VPM (do not need VIOS or hw partitioning).

    I think that it could be as simple as  connecting the HMC end VPM gets automatically inhibited



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    Pino Mariotto
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Changing IBM i partitions under VPM control to HMC control

    Posted Fri March 07, 2025 01:47 AM
    Edited by Hideyuki Yahagi Fri March 07, 2025 01:49 AM

    Thank you very much for your replies.

    Our preference is to keep the current S914 configuration (4 partitions) and go from VPM to HMC control. We would like to have both S914 (retain current configuration) and S1012 (new build, no migration) under HMC control.

    It's seems to be possible for linux partitions to move from VPM to HMC as described in Redpaper "Virtual Partition Manager A Guide to Planning and Implementation" -> "5.1.2  Migration Considerations when moving to HMC". I could not find any information describing whether this procedure is also applicable to IBM i partitions.

    The following is an excerpt from the Redpaper.

    5.1.2  Migration Considerations when moving to HMC

    The following steps outline some of the planning considerations for migrating off of the Virtual Partition Manager to HMC managed Linux partitions. Please note that you cannot save and restore partition configuration data; instead, you must create them in their entirety. However, you do not need to recreate your data saved in Linux partitions through the Network Server Storage Space. Point to the same virtual SCSI and virtual I/O resources when partitions are defined through HMC.

    1. Power off all of the Linux partitions.
    2. Start SST or DST, and select the option to Work with system partitions.
      If you do not already have your LVT prints, you may want to take note of the resource allocations you have for each of your Linux partitions such as CPU, memory, Min/Max values, number of virtual Ethernet LANs, and the eWLM settings. Keep in mind that you cannot print the configuration data through any report from the Virtual Partition Manager displays.
    3. Clear the Linux partition configurations using option 4 from the Work with System Partitions display. The Recovery Partition Configuration screen appears.
    4. Select Option 7 to Clear partition configuration data.
    5. IPL your server after clearing the partition configuration data.
    6. Connect HMC to your server.
    7. Create a new profile for the Linux partition that contains the physical I/O, memory, and processors desired.
    8. Perform the following for each Linux partition:

    – Create a Virtual SCSI Server adapter in the i5/OS partition.
    – Create a Virtual Serial client adapter in the i5/OS partition that points to the Virtual serial Server in the Linux partition in slot 0.
    – Create a new partition for Linux. You want to place the Virtual SCSI Client adapter in Virtual slot 2 because data in the NWSD points to this location.
    – Create any Virtual Ethernet devices you had in the Linux partition.
    – Make the Linux partition's power controlling partition to be the i5/OS partition.
    – Power on and Power off the Linux partitions. This drives the configuration down to the hypervisor.

           9. Vary on the NWSD in the i5/OS partition.

    Since this is a 20 year old Redpaper, I doubt that it applies to today's H/W and S/W.

    Any information you can provide would be appreciated.



    ------------------------------
    Hideyuki Yahagi
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Changing IBM i partitions under VPM control to HMC control

    Posted Wed March 12, 2025 02:13 PM

    BTW, the redpaper you quoted; it has many IBM i references.  SST, DST, i5/os, NWSD, etc.

    We still have a Power 9 with IBM i 7.5 hosting partitions of IBM i and AIX.  That IBM i host hosts the internal disk.  VIOS hosts the ethernet and FC.  HMC managed.

    I may have used something like IVM or VPM back on Power 4 prior to our HMC days.

    Oh, and we switched from a hardware appliance HMC to vHMC.  I'd never go back to a dedicated appliance again.  So much easier to do snapshots prior to upgrading HMC code.  And nice to get off of the hardware and software treadmill when it comes to upgrading the HMC.  You know, if you want to run above x level of HMC code you need to buy a new model.  There's a reason IBM stopped making x86 versions of dedicated HMC appliances and now limit you to vHMC on x86, vHMC on Power, Power based HMC appliance (for those who miss dedicated hardware like twinax on S/36 or the control panel on the S/38).  We like vHMC x86 based because any newbie can figure out how to setup a partition on vmware to load up vHMC.



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    Robert Berendt IBMChampion
    Business Systems Analyst, Lead
    Dekko
    Fort Wayne
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Changing IBM i partitions under VPM control to HMC control

    Posted Fri March 07, 2025 03:30 AM
    Edited by Janus Hertz Fri March 07, 2025 03:33 AM

    It should be as simple as connecting the HMC to the S914. As soon as you do that VPM gets disable, but your lpar configurations should remain unchanged.

    In the current configuration with VPM , you must be using 'IBM i hosting IBM i' (aka. iVirtualization). You can continue to do so, also with HMC managed server. So NO need to switch to VIOS for the virtualization.

    PLEASE remember as always, to do a full backup of your 4 lpars, and make notes about the lpars configurations (CPU, memeory, network) before performing the switch from VPM to HMC. Just in case.



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    Janus Hertz
    Consulting IT Specialist - IBM Power / IBM i - Virtualization, Security, HA/DR.
    IBM Northern Europe
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Changing IBM i partitions under VPM control to HMC control

    Posted Fri March 14, 2025 01:21 AM
    Edited by Hideyuki Yahagi Fri March 14, 2025 01:39 AM

    Hertz-san,

    > It should be as simple as connecting the HMC to the S914. As soon as you do that VPM gets disable, but your lpar configurations should remain unchanged.

    If the following guesses are correct, they would be consistent with the procedures in the Redpaper.

    • VPM and HMC are exclusive use.
    • If the VPM settings are cleared, the HMC will automatically detect the partitions.
    • If I redefine the virtual resources for each partition, I can continue to use them as they are.

    Berendt-san,

    > IDK the difference (if any) between VPM and IVM.
    > Does this apply?
    > https://robmcnelly.com/ivm-to-hmc-migrations/

    The article "IVM to HMC Migrations" contains the following statement.

    Section 5.2.4: "There is no officially announced procedure to migrate from an IVM environment to the HMC. If an HMC is connected to the system, the IVM interface will be disabled immediately, effectively making it just a Virtual I/O Server partition. The managed system goes into recovery mode. After recovery completes, the HMC shows all of the LPARs without a profile. You have to create one profile for each LPAR."

    I think the VPM will remain active after connecting the HMC, but after clearing the VPM configuration data, the Redpaper procedure may be applicable after "the HMC shows all of the LPARs".

    Perhaps the point that "we haven't had time to test this, so we think it will work, but we don't know if it will work" applies. Since there does not appear to be a case study or formal procedure, it needs to be tested in-house.

    I deeply appreciate the information provided.



    ------------------------------
    Hideyuki Yahagi
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    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Changing IBM i partitions under VPM control to HMC control

    Posted Wed March 12, 2025 01:58 PM

    IDK the difference (if any) between VPM and IVM.

    Does this apply?

    https://robmcnelly.com/ivm-to-hmc-migrations/



    ------------------------------
    Robert Berendt IBMChampion
    Business Systems Analyst, Lead
    Dekko
    Fort Wayne
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Changing IBM i partitions under VPM control to HMC control

    Posted 14 days ago
    Edited by Hideyuki Yahagi 14 days ago

    Robert-san,

    Sorry for being so late in replying. The migration from VPM to HMC is now complete, and I'd like to report on it along with the work that has been done.

    > Does this apply?
      
    No HMC commands were used and the migration was performed according to the procedure described in "Migrating from VPM managed Client partitions to HMC management".
     
    The basic steps are: 1 Print VPM configuration -> 2 Clear VPM configuration -> 3 Connect server to HMC -> 4 Create partition and virtual device configurations in HMC to match previous VMP configuration.
    In our case, we inadvertently connected the server to the HMC before printing and clearing the VPM configuration. This made it impossible to clear the VPM configuration, resulting in many "Undetected" virtual devices. The virtual device could not be associated correctly and the guest partitions using virtual SCSI could not find the LSU and would not boot.
     
    Finally, the guest partitions were made bootable by creating a description on the HMC side to match the old virtual SCSI description created in VPM. All configuration information that has an "Undetected" status in WRKHDWRSC *AHW from the host partition has been manually deleted.
     
    Lesson Learned: When migrating from VPM to HMC, never connect the server to HMC until all work on the VPM side is completed.
     
    I hope there will be no more unhappy people...

    ------------------------------
    Hideyuki Yahagi
    Technical Advisor, iS Technoport
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    Original Message


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