Installing the HMC virtual appliance by using the Xen hypervisor

Learn how to install the Hardware Management Console (HMC) virtual appliance by using the Xen hypervisor.

The HMC virtual appliance supports Xen version 4.2 or later.

To install the HMC virtual appliance by using the Xen hypervisor, complete the following steps:

Note: The following steps use the command line interface and requires root user authority. The command syntax might vary depending on the operating system.

Verify that virtualization packages are installed on systems with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) version 6.4 or later.
Download the <XEN vHMC installation filename>.tar.gz file to the host system.
Run the following command: mkdir -p /var/lib/libvirt/images/vHMC.
Run the following command: cd /var/lib/libvirt/images/vHMC.
To extract the virtual disk images, run the following command: tar -zxvf <XEN vHMC installation filename>.tgz
Note: In this command, specify the full path of your HMC virtual appliance .tar file.
A vhmc.cfg file is provided in the <XEN vHMC installation filename>.tar.gz file. Open the vhmc.cfg file in a text editor and edit the following values:
1. Change the name of the virtual HMC (optional): Edit the vhmc.cfg file and verify that the path to your disks is correct. This file contains the string DISK_PATH.
2. Replace DISK_PATH with the path for disk1.img:
```
disk = [ 'file:DISKPATH,hda,w' ]
```
3. Replace ethernet adapter and add MAC address (optional):
```
vif = [ 'type=virtio, model=e1000, bridge=eth0' ]
```
  Optional MAC Address:
```
vif = [ 'type=virtio, mac=MACADDRESS, model=e1000, bridge=eth0' ]
```
  Note: When the Virtual HMC is rebooted, the Xen hypervisor automatically regenerates a MAC address. Adding the optional MAC Address solves this issue.
4. Replace FLOPPYPATH (if you are using the Activation Engine):
```
device_model_args = [ "-fda", "FLOPPYPATH" ]
```
To create and start the VM, run the following command: xl create vHMC.cfg.
To check that the VM was added to the list of defined virtual machines, run the following command: xl list.
To access the VM local console, run the following command: vncviewer localhost 0.

Last updated: Mon, April 13, 2020