Creating a logical partition by using a template

You can create a partition by using partition templates that are available in the template library of the Hardware Management Console (HMC). The Create a Partition from Template wizard guides you through the deployment process and configuration steps.

1. Choose one of the following navigation options depending on the interface type of the Hardware Management Console (HMC):
   • If you are using an HMC Enhanced interface, complete the following steps:
     1. In the navigation pane, expand Systems Management > Servers.
     2. Select the server on which you want to create the logical partition and complete one of the following actions:
        • Click Templates > Create Partition from Template to start the wizard. In the work pane, select a template from the list of templates and click Next.
        • Click Templates > Template Library to start the wizard. Click the Partition tab. Select a template form the list and right-click Deploy. You can also view the details of the template by clicking the template.
   • If you are using an HMC Enhanced+ interface, complete the following steps:
     1. In the navigation pane, click the Resources icon .
     2. Click All Systems. The All Systems page is displayed.
     3. In the work pane, select the system and click Actions > View System Properties. The Properties page is displayed.
     4. Expand System Actions > Templates > Create Partition from Template. Alternatively, you can create a partition by accessing the template library.
2. Click Next. If the selected template is compatible with the target system, the Partition Configuration Summary page is displayed. For servers that do not support IBM® i partitions with native I/O capability, you must enable IBM i restricted I/O mode by selecting the Restricted I/O Partition check box. If you continue with the partition creation without selecting the Restricted I/O Partition check box, a warning message is displayed. You must run the wizard again and select the Restricted I/O Partition check box to continue with the partition creation.
3. In the Partition Configuration Summary page, you can change the default partition name. For AIX® or Linux partitions, you can also select the Shared Processor Pool option if the partition template specifies that the partition uses shared processors. For IBM i logical partitions, the IBM i Tagged I/O tab is displayed (for more information on IBM i Tagged I/O tab, see step 8). Click Template Details to view the details of the template. Click Next.
   Note: If the template has details related to the virtualization capabilities like Live Partition Mobility, you can view the details by clicking Template Details.
4. Click the Physical I/O page. If the I/O configuration of the system does not match the I/O configuration that is captured in the selected template, the create partition operation fails.
   1. In the Physical I/O Adapters area, you can select the physical I/O adapters for the logical partition. To view the adapters that are available in other drawers of the system, select the drawer from the View adapters in list.
   2. In the Logical SR-IOV Ethernet Adapters area, you can assign the SR-IOV logical ports that are displayed to the logical partition.
5. If you had specified the networks in the template before creating the partition, the Network Configuration page displays a summary of the virtual networks to which the partition will be connected. The page displays a list of available networks if you had not specified the networks before creating the partition. In both cases, you can specify the virtual Ethernet adapter ID. Click Next.
6. In the Virtual NIC Configuration page, the table displays all the virtual Network Interface Controllers (vNICs) that are in the template. When the template uses captured I/O information, you can change the value of the Hosting Partition field and select a physical port that matches the hosting partition. When the template does not use captured I/O information, you can change the value of the Capacity (%), Physical Port, Hosting Partition, and Failover Priority fields for each backing device. The number of physical ports must be equal to or greater than the number of backing devices of the vNICs that are specified in the template, because each backing device of a vNIC must be created on a different physical port. You can also specify values for the MAC Address field depending on the template settings. Click Next.
7. In the Storage Configuration page, complete the following steps:
   Note: You can configure storage resources such as virtual Small Computer Serial Interface (SCSI), virtual Fibre Channel, and virtual Optical devices. When using virtual adapters, you can connect logical partitions with each other without using physical hardware. Operating systems can display, configure, and use virtual adapters similar to how it can display, configure, and use physical adapters. Depending on the operating environment used by the logical partition, you can create virtual Ethernet adapters, virtual Fibre Channel adapters, virtual Optical devices, and virtual SCSI adapters. You can use virtual SCSI (vSCSI) to simplify the backup and maintenance operations on your managed system. When you back up the data on the system logical partition, you also back up the data on each client logical partition. You can configure the managed system with N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV), such that multiple logical partitions can access independent physical storage through the same physical Fibre Channel adapter. NPIV is a standard technology for Fibre Channel networks. NPIV enables you to connect multiple logical partitions to one physical port of a physical Fibre Channel adapter.
   1. Click Virtual SCSI.
   2. In the Physical Volume area, you can assign physical volumes. Click Edit Connections to edit the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) connections for the physical volumes. Click Show assigned physical volumes to view more physical volumes in the table.
   3. In the Shared Storage Pool Volumes area, you can select the shared storage pool cluster and the tier that you want to assign the device to. You can also enable or disable thin provisioning for the device. In a thin-provisioned device, the used storage space might be greater than the actual used storage space. If the blocks of storage space in a thin-provisioned device are unused, the device is not entirely backed up by physical storage space. By using thin-provisioning, you can exceed the storage capacity of the storage pool.
   4. Click Virtual Fibre Channel. The Virtual Fibre Channel content area displays a table with the available Virtual Fibre Channel ports to which the partition can connect. You can select the Virtual Fibre Channel port from the displayed list of ports.
   5. Click Virtual Optical Devices. The Virtual Optical Devices content area displays the devices that are specified in the template. You can optionally change the VIOS on which the device will be created.
   6. Click Next.
8. For IBM i logical partitions, the IBM i Tagged I/O page is displayed. Select values for the Load Source, Alternate Restart Device, Console, Alternate Console, and Operations Console fields.
9. In the Summary page page, you can view a summary of the changes. Select one of the following options:
   • Activate partition - Creates the client partition with the resources you have selected in this wizard and activates the partition.
   • Create partition and Apply Configuration - Creates the partition with resources you have selected in this wizard.
10. Click Finish.
    Note: The deploy operation fails and a partition is not created, if the system does not match all the configuration including the I/O adapter configuration that is provided by the selected template. If the virtual network or virtual storage mapping fails, the partition is created and a message is displayed that indicates that the partition was created with errors. The created partition cannot be rolled back. You must manually delete the partition or go to the Manage PowerVM functionality available in the HMC to assign the network or storage to the created partition.