Forgive my newbie cluelessness, but I have a P5 520 that I'm trying to get
up and running, but the quick start guide has a lot of info about about
an "HMC" (Hardware Management Console). It warns me "Attention: You must
start and configure your HMC before connecting your system unit to a power
source". I hooked up a monitor, mouse, keyboard etc to the system. Do I
really need an HMC, or can I just power the thing up and admin it via the
console?

--
"Sigourney Weaver is pretty cool, he really kicks ass in all those
alien movies, even if he does look a little like a chick."

Wes Gray wrote:
> Forgive my newbie cluelessness, but I have a P5 520 that I'm trying to get
> up and running, but the quick start guide has a lot of info about about
> an "HMC" (Hardware Management Console). It warns me "Attention: You must
> start and configure your HMC before connecting your system unit to a power
> source". I hooked up a monitor, mouse, keyboard etc to the system. Do I
> really need an HMC, or can I just power the thing up and admin it via the
> console?
>

If do not want to logically partiton up the system, then no, you do not
need an HMC.

You need the HMC to divide the physical system into logical partitions.

Hello World,

Wes Gray wrote:
> Forgive my newbie cluelessness, but I have a P5 520 that I'm trying to get
> up and running, but the quick start guide has a lot of info about about
> an "HMC" (Hardware Management Console). It warns me "Attention: You must
> start and configure your HMC before connecting your system unit to a power
> source". I hooked up a monitor, mouse, keyboard etc to the system. Do I
> really need an HMC, or can I just power the thing up and admin it via the
> console?

In addition to running it as a single system (where all you need is a
TTY for twenty minutes), there is also the Integrated Virtualization
Manager, which is an HMC that runs next to your Virtual I/O server in
the same LPAR. It doesn't have all the features of a full-blown HMC,
but it's easier to use. You also need the Advanced Hardware
Virtualization feature.

I've got it here. Eight LPARs on a single P510Q. It works. Keep in mind
though, that the only LPAR actually to own any real hardware is tha VIO
server. All the other LPARs' resources are virtual.

Cheers,
Menno.

Wes Gray wrote:
> Forgive my newbie cluelessness, but I have a P5 520 that I'm trying to get
> up and running, but the quick start guide has a lot of info about about
> an "HMC" (Hardware Management Console). It warns me "Attention: You must
> start and configure your HMC before connecting your system unit to a power
> source". I hooked up a monitor, mouse, keyboard etc to the system. Do I
> really need an HMC, or can I just power the thing up and admin it via the
> console?
>
A console would do although it's fairly limited. Using the console you
can install AIX from CD, etc. From memory I used an IBM3151 console
set to 19200 baud 8N1 on serial port T5.
You can change the console line speed via the Web browser interface by
connecting a PC with IP 192.168.2.1 via a straight-through cable to
HMC1 port and enter https://192.168.2.147 as the URL in the browser.
The default user/password is admin/admin, which you should change of
course...
Good luck!
Jeffrey

Menno Willemse wrote:
> Hello World,
>
> Wes Gray wrote:
> > Forgive my newbie cluelessness, but I have a P5 520 that I'm trying to get
> > up and running, but the quick start guide has a lot of info about about
> > an "HMC" (Hardware Management Console). It warns me "Attention: You must
> > start and configure your HMC before connecting your system unit to a power
> > source". I hooked up a monitor, mouse, keyboard etc to the system. Do I
> > really need an HMC, or can I just power the thing up and admin it via the
> > console?
>
> In addition to running it as a single system (where all you need is a
> TTY for twenty minutes), there is also the Integrated Virtualization
> Manager, which is an HMC that runs next to your Virtual I/O server in
> the same LPAR. It doesn't have all the features of a full-blown HMC,
> but it's easier to use. You also need the Advanced Hardware
> Virtualization feature.
>
> I've got it here. Eight LPARs on a single P510Q. It works. Keep in mind
> though, that the only LPAR actually to own any real hardware is tha VIO
> server. All the other LPARs' resources are virtual.
>
> Cheers,
> Menno.

Well, A little incorrect. No logical partition owns any hardware. All
hardware is owned by the p-hive. All interrupts are routed to the LPARS
through the p-hive. So no LPAR ever sees an interrupt from a device,
but from the p-hive itself. The p-hive also owns all the memory and
processors. It schedules the different LPARS on these processors.

Regards,
Rajbir Bhattacharjee

Hello World,

rajbir wrote:
>
> Well, A little incorrect. No logical partition owns any hardware. All
> hardware is owned by the p-hive. All interrupts are routed to the LPARS
> through the p-hive. So no LPAR ever sees an interrupt from a device,
> but from the p-hive itself. The p-hive also owns all the memory and
> processors. It schedules the different LPARS on these processors.

Yah, okay, but the point is that with the IVM, you cannot assign (say)
an Ethernet card or an FC card exclusively to a micro-LPAR, while with
an HMC, you can. (As far as I'm aware). IVM is "HMC Lite".

Cheers,
Menno

There's a redpiece on the Virtual I/O Server Integrated Virtualization
Manager:
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpapers/pdfs/redp4061.pdf