The HMC can be a hardware appliance or virtual appliance that can be used to configure and manage your systems. The HMC connects to one or more managed systems and provides capabilities for the following primary functions:
Ê Systems Management functions, such as power off, power on, system settings, CoD, enterprise pools, shared processor pools (SPPs), Performance and Capacity Monitoring, and starting ASMI for managed systems.
Ê Delivers virtualization management through support for creating, managing, and deleting LPARs, LPM, and Remote Restart; configuring SRIOV; and managing VIOSs, dynamic resource allocation, and OS terminals.
Ê Acts as the Service Focal Point (SFP) for systems and supports service functions, including Call Home, dump management, guided repair and verify, concurrent firmware updates for managed systems, and around-the-clock error reporting with Electronic Service Agent (ESA) for faster support.
Ê Provides appliance management capabilities for configuring the network and users on the HMC, and updating and upgrading the HMC.
1.8.1 HMC 7063-CR2
The 7063-CR2 IBM Power HMC (see Figure 1-9) is a second-generation IBM Power processor-based HMC.
Figure 1-9 HMC 7063-CR2
The CR2 model includes the following features:
Ê Six-core Power9 130 W processor chip
Ê 64 GB (4×16 GB) or 128 GB (4×32 GB) of memory RAM
Ê 1.8 TB with RAID 1 protection of internal disk capacity
Ê Four-port 1 Gb Ethernet (RH-45), 2-port 10 Gb Ethernet (RJ-45), two USB 3.0 ports (front side) and two USB 3.0 ports (rear side), and 1 Gb Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) Ethernet (RJ-45)
Ê Two 900 W power supply units (PSUs)
22 IBM Power E1050: Technical Overview and Introduction
Ê Remote Management Service: IPMI port (OpenBMC) and Redfish application programming interface (API)
Ê Base Warranty is 1 year 9×5 with available optional upgrades
A USB Smart Drive is not included.
Note: The recovery media for V10R1 is the same for 7063-CR2 and 7063-CR1.
The 7063-CR2 is compatible with flat panel console kits 7316-TF3, TF4, and TF5.
Note: The 7316-TF3 and TF4 were withdrawn from marketing.
1.8.2 Virtual HMC
Initially, the HMC was sold only as a hardware appliance, including the HMC firmware. However, IBM extended this offering to allow the purchase of the hardware appliance and a virtual appliance that can be deployed on ppc64le architectures and deployed on x86 platforms.
Any customer with a valid contract can download this offering from the IBM ESS website, or this offering can be included with an initial Power E1050 order.
The virtual HMC supports the following hypervisors:
Ê On x86 processor-based servers:
– Kernel-based Virtual Machine
– Xen
– VMware
Ê On Power processor-based servers: PowerVM
The following minimum requirements must be met to install the virtual HMC:
Ê 16 GB of memory
Ê Four virtual processors
Ê Two network interfaces (a maximum of four is allowed)
Ê One disk drive (500 GB available disk drive)
For an initial Power E1050 order with the IBM configurator (e-config), you can find the HMC virtual appliance by selecting Add software ® Other System Offerings (as product selections) and then select either of the following items:
Ê 5765-VHP for IBM HMC Virtual Appliance for Power V10
Ê 5765-VHX for IBM HMC Virtual Appliance x86 V10
For more information about an overview of the Virtual HMC, see this web page.
For more information about how to install the virtual HMC appliance and all requirements, see IBM Documentation.
Chapter 1. IBM Power E1050 overview 23
1.8.3 BMC network connectivity rules for the 7063-CR2
The 7063-CR2 HMC features a baseboard management controller (BMC), which is a specialized service processor that monitors the physical state of the system by using sensors. The OpenBMC that is used on 7063-CR2 provides a GUI that can be accessed from a workstation that has network connectivity to the BMC. This connection requires an Ethernet port to be configured for use by the BMC.
Note: This section describes the BMC of the hardware HMC 7063-CR2. The Power E1050 also uses an eBMC for the systems management, as described in 2.5, “The enterprise Baseboard Management Controller” on page 73.
The 7063-CR2 provides two network interfaces (eth0 and eth1) for configuring network connectivity for BMC on the appliance.
Each interface maps to a different physical port on the system. Different management tools name the interfaces differently. The HMC task Console Management ® Console Settings ® Change BMC/IPMI Network Settings modifies only the Dedicated interface.
The BMC ports are listed in Table 1-10.
Table 1-10 BMC ports
Figure 1-10 shows the BMC interfaces of the HMC.
Figure 1-10 BMC interfaces
24 IBM Power E1050: Technical Overview and Introduction
The main difference is the shared and dedicated interface to the BMC can coexist. Each one has its own LAN number and physical port. Ideally, the customer configures one port, but both can be configured. The rules to connecting IBM Power servers to the HMC remain the same as previous versions.
1.8.4 High availability HMC configuration
For the best manageability and redundancy, a dual HMC configuration is suggested. This configuration can be two hardware appliances, but also one hardware appliance and one virtual appliance or two virtual appliances.
The following requirements must be met:
Ê Two HMCs are at the same version.
Ê The HMCs use different subnets to connect to the Flexible Service Processors (FSPs).
Ê The HMCs can communicate with the servers’ partitions over a public network to allow for full synchronization and function.