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  • 1.  HMC and vHMC

    Posted Thu December 21, 2023 08:37 PM

    For redundant HMC's, is it possible to run one 7063-CR2/CR1 and one x86 based virtual HMC as the same redundant pair?



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    Suleman Malik
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  • 2.  RE: HMC and vHMC

    Posted Thu December 21, 2023 10:48 PM

    As long as you cable each HMC to the right port (one on each HMC server port), that should work.



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    Diego KESSELMAN BARRIONUEVO
    General Manager
    ESSELWARE Soluciones, SA de CV
    CDMX DIF
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: HMC and vHMC

    Posted Fri December 22, 2023 02:18 AM
    Hello,

    Also, ensure that HMC1 and HMC2 ports must be in different subnets, and keep caution with the configurations, changing a profile in one HMC would not reflect to the other and you might copy configurations manually.


    Un saludo,

     

    Urtzi Larrieta

    Responsable Sistemas de Información | Ecna informática

    Tel: 944 15 96 88, ext. 2050 | 944 55 96 50 | 666 05 14 74

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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: HMC and vHMC

    Posted Fri December 22, 2023 07:59 AM

    We have multiple HMC's.  No, we do not use separate ports.  In fact, we do not even use a private network reserved just for the Power systems and the HMC's.  I could never fathom how people feel that your personnel, medical, trade secrets, etc could all be on the company network but it's curtains for the free world if your HMC is on the company network.  One HMC is on the same subnet as the Power system.  The other HMC is in a different state in a different colocation facility.  Each Co-lo basically has their own Power systems and their own vHMC.  The vHMCs often backup each other while one is down for maintenance.  Our vHMC's are using the same cable(s) coming out of the vmware center as the rest of the virtual machines.

    I can change partition profiles from either.  Start up systems from either.  Etc.  No problem.

    IBM goes to GREAT lengths though to stress how important that your HMC's be at the same code level.  That would be my biggest concern in your setup.

    We used to be a shop using dedicated physical x86 based HMCs.  When IBM dropped the dedicated physical x86 based HMC's for the newer versions of HMC code we went to vHMC on x86 equipment.  Love it.  One more item out of the upgrade treadmill.  Being able to do snapshots of your vHMC before upgrades, etc is fantastic.



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    Robert Berendt IBMChampion
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: HMC and vHMC

    Posted Wed December 27, 2023 10:30 AM

    You can do this easily.  It is a cost effective way to provide redundancy in your POWER environment.  
    Essentially it would like this network-wise :
    HMC CR1/CR2 - 2 connections
    Public IP which you will use to connect to GUI or SSH
    Private VLAN range which the HMC will communicate with POWER node(s)


    vHMC - 2 connections
    Public IP which you will use to connect to GUI or SSH
    Private VLAN range which the HMC will communicate with POWER node(s)

    ** Important to remember to use separate/unique VLANs for the Private VLAN connections.  In the HMC , you select the ranges for those IPs.  There are several available to choose from , make sure they are different.  





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    Alan Fulton
    Follow me on Twitter - @The_Iron_Monger
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: HMC and vHMC

    Posted Thu December 28, 2023 11:23 AM

    Like Alan said, it's very doable. The challenge I've seen in our customer base is the network portion of it.
    The private network used for the vHMC connection to the managed host cannot be a private switch, but now needs to be a private VLAN. So, the networking team would need to create a new private and non-routable VLAN. This VLAN would then need to be added to any trunks going to your VMWare hosts. Then, VM administrators would need to add it to their distributed switch, so it can be presented to the VM running the vHMC code.

    All doable, just needs coordination and education for the network/VMware team to have the understand the need. 



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    Mark Steele
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    Original Message