AIX > Systems Management > Virtualization

Streamline System Configuration with the PowerVM Provisioning Toolkit

So you’ve decided to grow to a larger IBM PowerVM system, in lieu of purchasing an additional system, and you plan to create multiple operating environments and leverage the system’s inherent features such as enhanced I/O. Then, you’re exactly the customer the PowerVM Provisioning Toolkit solution is designed to help!

The toolkit enables the accelerated deployment and provisioning of virtual I/O servers and client partitions on IBM POWER6 and POWER7 processor-based servers. It does this by providing a repeatable process and set of scripts to consistently build and configure partitions by leveraging and complementing PowerVM virtualization-enabling technologies.

This process was developed by IBM Systems Technology Group (STG) Lab Services to assist clients with making the configuration of Power systems and the partitions that run on them easier to set up and validate. System configuration involves creating a design document and handing it over to system administrators who build it based on those requirements.

This approach eliminates potential issues—such as misinterpreting build documentation, which can lead to invalid configurations, and building out many frames, which can be a tedious, time-consuming task. By putting all of the variable information for building the systems into a file, it can be easily maintained and verified. This information is then used as input to a build script for the managed system, virtual I/O servers (VIO) and the client partitions that will run on the managed system. It provides a repeatable process that’s easily implemented across all Power servers.

Clear Advantages

One of the advantages of the PowerVM Provisioning Toolkit is it uses current infrastructure to implement the managed system configuration. It leverages the hardware management console (HMC) command line interface and network installation management (NIM) functions so no new appliances or external provisioning software is required. This reduces the complexity and maintenance of the environment.

In addition, it’s a script-driven process that’s consistent and repeatable every time. The ability to use a table to easily add any number of shared Ethernet adapters, backing devices and virtual LANs provides a simple way to configure the system’s networks.

The process also takes advantage of using physical location codes for operations that involve resolving the I/O slot or device information. This relieves the user from having to know what the specific dynamic reconfiguration connector index, ent, or fcs device is in order to perform I/O slot assignment, shared Ethernet adapter (SEA) configuration or N_port ID virtualization mapping. The code will handle the translation from physical location code to the equivalent device mapping, directly. This allows for the creation of the build profile without having the VIO server image loaded.

Tweet