IBM has expanded the Power10 server line with new models of Power10 servers (Scale-Out and Midrange) which combine performance, scalability, and flexibility with flexible consumption offerings for clients looking to deploy new services quickly across hybrid cloud environments.
As with any new system, there is an HMC update V10 R1 M1020 (10.1.1020.0) to manage the Power10 Scale-out and Midrange systems which also delivers multiple new features and customer requested enhancements. HMC 10.1.1020.0 can also manage the Power10 High-end systems and POWER9 and POWER8 systems.
HMC 10.1.1020.0 Enhancements:
To start with, HMC 10.1.1020.0 is an update of HMC V10 R1 M1010 and can be updated on top of HMC 10.1.1010.0 with or without additional Service Packs or PTFs. Useful instructions for updating to HMC 10.1.1020.0 can be found here
Power10 Scale-out and Midrange systems management with HMC:
Power10 Scale-out and Midrange servers use the Enterprise Baseboard Management Contoller (eBMC) service processor in place of the Flexible Service Processor (FSP) used in earlier PowerVM systems. The eBMC-based Power Systems have a new model to communicate between the HMC and Power hypervisor in addition to a connection to the BMC. This interface is called the Virtualization Management Interface (VMI). Administrators need to configure the VMI IP address after connecting an Enterprise BMC-based system to the HMC. It is recommended to configure the VMI IP before powering on the system. There are two end points that HMC will communicate to manage the system - one is to the BMC itself and other one is VMI.
The diagrams below show the difference in communication between HMC and managed systems on a FSP-based system vs an eBMC-based system.
When you install a new Power10 Scale-out or Midrange system and configure, once the system is connected to the HMC, you should configure the VMI IP as well. You can refer to steps to configure VMI from HMC GUI here
You will be able to manage Power10 Scale out and Midrange systems with the same user experience from the HMC as that of FSP-based systems, with the difference of having two IPs (one for eBMC and one for VMI on each network port) configured on the service network for eBMC systems.
There are many new enhancements delivered in HMC 10.1.1020.0, apart from support for managing and servicing Power10 Scale-out and Midrange systems, many of which are Ideas (Request For Enhancements (RFE’s)) provided by customers.
VIOS Management Enhancements:
- Ability to specify BOOTP and TFTP retries for install of AIX/Linux/VIOS (RFE 80992, Idea HMC-I-13)
- Scheduled operations support for VIOS backup and SSP Config backup
- Command line for importing VIOS images to HMC and managing them (chviosimg, cpviosimg, lsviosimg, and rmviosimg)
- Listing of Physical Location (AIX, Linux, IBM i) and Disk UDID (AIX, Linux partitions only) when viewing Virtual Fiber channel topology using lshwres command. (RFE 145678, Idea HMC-I-219)
Live Partition Mobility (LPM), Remote Restart (RR) and SRIOV Enhancements:
- Ability to define VIOS level labels for Virtual Storage Mapping for LPM, RR operations (labelvios and lslabelvios commands with resource types vscsi and vfc)
- Ability to optionally override label usage for Virtual Storage mapping during LPM and remote restart (RR) operations.
- Ability to define labels for MSP IPs to be used during LPM operation, including the ability to specify MSP IPs to be excluded for LPM use (labelvios and lslabelvios commands with resource type as msp).
- Ability to define preference at system level to specify if labels must be used for choosing the VIOS on target or MSP pairing for LPM (labelvios command)
- Ability to specify MSP labels during LPM operation
User Experience Improvements:
- Notifications icon in dashboard view/header. Notifications, like CoD, will be shown with this new addition in the dashboard view
- Usability improvements in Virtual Storage and Virtual Network UI
- Inline Error/Warning for multi-step progress view
- Enhancements in help views
- Isolated Help Search
- Support of navigation details in help search
Console Management and Security Enhancements:
- Warning message during HMC reboot if there are other logged in sessions (RFE 127366, Idea HMC-I-209)
- Add support for monthly repeat option in Scheduled operations (RFE 147943, Idea HMC-I-251)
- TLS 1.3 support
- New command rstconsdata to restore hmc critical console data ( RFE 115894, Idea HMC-I-86)
- Add passphrase support for SFTP in GUI & Increase history size to 1000 ( RFE 146854, Idea HMC-I-307 )
- Ability to specify bond mode when creating Network bond (Round Robin (Default mode) or Active Backup)
- Ability to run sha256sum and md5sum in restricted shell
CMC and Power Private Cloud with Shared Utility Capacity (Enterprise Pools 2.0 or EP2.0) updates:
There are multiple enhancements delivered in the recent update of Cloud Management Console (CMC) as well.
- Support for Power10 Scale-out and Midrange systems aligning with the GA of the systems.
- Power10 Scale-out systems can be added to the same Enterprise pool 2.0 that has POWER9 Scale-out systems.
- Power10 Midrange systems can be added to the same Enterprise pool 2.0 that has POWER9 Midrange systems
The following CMC enhancements were added with CMC 1.17
- Alerts/Notifications for Inventory app
- Ability to add Allow list as option for monitoring systems. You can now allow cloud connector to collect and send data for specific managed systems by adding them to allowlist. Allowlist option requires a minimum HMC level of 10.1.1020.0 or later.
- Enterprise Pools 2.0 Chargeback – Support to retrieve utilization at one-minute frequency
- Pay-as-go enablement for Enterprise Pools 2.0 offers a Post Pay/Monthly Billing option. You can now get a Pool with either pre-paid credits or post-pay option enabled.
- RHEL CoreOS Metering support for Enterprise Pools 2.0 which enables selected Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) for Power Premium Subscriptions sold as IBM program products to be eligible to be tracked as base and metered capacity resource within Power Enterprise Pools 2.0.
- Ability to test connection after configuring PowerVS API Keys
PowerVM NovaLink 2.0.3.x Enhancements:
Novalink 2.0.3.1 enables support for Power10 Scale-out and Midrange systems
The following enhancements were added in NovaLink 2.0.3
- Support for RHEL 8.6
- Enhanced pvmctl migration command with ability to provide target Shared processor pool id on destination managed system.
- Active or Inactive Migration between a system managed by NovaLink and a system managed by HMC and vice versa.
- Replaced objectionable terminology: Replaced objectionable terminology across CLI, Rest API .Changes in the following functions were made
- Power Enterprise Pools: master is replaced by controller.
- PowerVM NovaLink Co-management: master is replaced by controller
- Enhanced PowerVM NovaLink ISO installer to include NovaLink 2.0.3 packages for installation using the ISO for RHEL and Ubuntu platforms.
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