IBM Support

Permanently Disabling Partition Mobility Support

Question & Answer


Question

There are some applications that bill based on whether Partition Mobility (Live Partition Mobility or LPM) is enabled on the POWER8 server. I do not use LPM, but my server came with LPM enabled.

Can I disable the capability on my POWER8 or POWER9 server?

Answer

In POWER8 (FW860.40 and later) and POWER9 (FW920.10 and later), IBM made it possible to disable the VET (Virtualization Engine Technology) feature for Partition Mobility. ThE document describes that process.

FW910 requires separate actions: to turn OFF LPM, contact the CoD Project Office at pcod@us.ibm.com
Include the server type, serial number, and request the VET codes to Disable LPM. If you want to re-enable LPM, a new VET code is needed and obtained from the CoD Project Office.
The strategic option is to upgrade to FW930, which allows the ASMI command to run.


Procedure to Disable Partition Mobility Feature
Once the server is running FW860.40 or later, including POWER9 firmware, the VET feature can be disabled from the advanced system management interface (ASMI). The system must be powered on, at least to standby. From the HMC, you select the Launch Advanced System Management (ASM) from the operations menu. After signing into ASMI, select CoD Command from the On Demand Utilities category. From the CoD Command enter cfcuod –LPM OFF.

After pressing the enter key, assuming the proper firmware is installed and the command was entered correctly, the following panel is displayed.

If the proper firmware is not installed or the command was miss typed, the following panel is displayed.

The firmware logs SRC A70047CA to indicate the LPM has been disabled.

The capabilities tab on the HMC server properties indicates the Active Partition Mobility and Inactive Partition Mobility capabilities are False. The IBM i Partition Mobility value is only valid when Active or Inactive Partition Mobility is True (e.g. You are NOT allowed to migrate IBM i partitions even though IBM i Partition Mobility is true).

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Document Information

Modified date:
07 December 2021

UID

nas8N1022300