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Power Virtualization

Learn about the virtualization technologies designed specifically for IBM Power including #PowerVM, #PowerVC, #VM Recovery Manager,Β #HCM/CMC, and more.


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  • 1.  Why does the HMC nott see VIOS disks?

    Posted Fri December 05, 2025 07:21 AM

    When using the Vios Upgrade from HMC no disks are detected allthough as you can see in the SSH window there oviously are.
    Why is that, is it because they are SAN disks and the tool expects local disks on the Power Host or is it that the HMMC is missing some kind of communication port to be opened?



    ------------------------------
    Henrik Mainz
    Senior System Engineer
    ECIT Solutions AB
    Stockholm
    +46738848313
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Why does the HMC nott see VIOS disks?

    Posted Sun December 07, 2025 03:13 AM
    Edited by Sylvain Manceau Sun December 07, 2025 03:16 AM

    Hi Henrik,

    This list is the eligible disks to be used as temporary storage for upgrade. Of course, the disk you choose have to be empty and will be completely overwritten.

    From my experience:

    • To perform VIOS upgrade, you need a free additional disk; hdisk0 and 1 are your current rootvg and cannot be used for upgrade
    • It can be a SAN disk, as long as the SAN controller is supported OOTB by VIOS (no need for an extra ODM)
    • If your designated temporary disk has some LVM PV on it, it won't be shown in the list
      • Check with "lspv -u"
      • You can clean it with "chpv -C hdiskxxx" (check twice before!)
    • Free tips:
      • Remove any Virtual Media Library from the VIOS before upgrade
      • Include "NIMOL resources" and "Volume groups structure" to any pre-operation VIOS backup

      Please read here for further reference: https://community.ibm.com/community/user/blogs/manjunath-shanbhag1/2024/01/29/upgrade-vios-using-hmc



      ------------------------------
      Sylvain Manceau
      Blue
      ------------------------------

      Original Message


    • 3.  RE: Why does the HMC nott see VIOS disks?

      Posted Mon December 08, 2025 01:13 AM

      HI

      you have mirrored rootvg , so you can unmirror rootvg and upgrade your VIO sevrer.

      *unmirror rootvg*

      1. Reduce the disk from rootvg and use it for upgrade OS using alt_disk_copy
           # unmirrorvg rootvg hdisk1
           # reducevg rootvg hdisk1
           # chpv -c hdisk1
           # bootlist -m normal -o
           # bosboot -ad /dev/hdisk0.

      then try to upgrade the VIO server from HMC , or if you need i can help and share the procedure to make it from command line.

      Thank you 



      ------------------------------
      Anas AlSaleh
      IBM Power Systems Software Specialist
      Saudi Business Machines ( SBM )
      Riyadh
      ------------------------------

      Original Message


    • 4.  RE: Why does the HMC nott see VIOS disks?

      Posted Tue December 09, 2025 01:25 AM

      Hi @Anas AlSaleh,

      Interesting post, I always thought that having a mirrored rootvg was a prerequisite for an automated upgrade using HMC.

      @Henrik Mainz may also need a procedure to have a mirrored rootvg back, after upgrade πŸ˜‰



      ------------------------------
      Sylvain Manceau
      Blue
      ------------------------------

      Original Message


    • 5.  RE: Why does the HMC nott see VIOS disks?

      Posted Tue December 09, 2025 03:13 AM

      Hi @Sylvain Manceau

      Actually, once the VIOS rootvg is mirrored and we need to perform an update or upgrade, we can unmirror the rootvg and use one of the disks for the upgrade. This leaves the second disk untouched, providing a safe rollback option if needed.

      Thank you



      ------------------------------
      Anas AlSaleh
      IBM Power Systems Software Specialist
      Saudi Business Machines ( SBM )
      Riyadh
      ------------------------------

      Original Message


    • 6.  RE: Why does the HMC nott see VIOS disks?

      Posted Tue December 09, 2025 12:42 PM

      In addition to using the unmirrorios command as stated previously - I recently upgraded from 3.x to 4.x and had a slight issue with NVME drives.  It turns out that if your system has NVME drives, you want to be on 3.1.4.40 or higher in order for the detection of a free NVME drive to work successfully.  The new command is lspv -unused rather than lspv -free for NVME drives.  I think it's availability started at 3.1.4.40 or .41.



      ------------------------------
      Kevin
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      Original Message


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