Use the PowerVM®
NovaLink installer to install the
PowerVM
NovaLink environment on a new managed system.
This information can be used for managed systems that are in factory configuration and that are
not managed by a Hardware Management Console (HMC). For information about how to install the PowerVM
NovaLink software on a system that is managed by an HMC, see Installing the PowerVM NovaLink software on a system that is managed by an HMC.
Before you install the
PowerVM
NovaLink environment on a
new managed system, complete the following tasks:
- Install the hardware as needed and connect all cables except for the power cables.
Install the hardware as required and connect all the cables. Note down the location code associated
to each network adapter and their ports to be used. This information will be used during the
installation. To understand the location codes for POWER8®
systems, see Part locations and location codes.
- Update the system firmware to the latest version. For information on how to update the system
firmware, see Installing firmware using the USB port on the service processor on a system that is not managed by
a management console.
- Locate a Linux PC or notebook with the
ipmitool installed to use as a console for initial configuration. If you have not configured the IP address of the Flexible Service Processor (FSP) of the
managed system, then you also need an Ethernet cable to connect the PC or notebook to an FSP
port of the managed system.
- If you do not already have the installation image, download the PowerVM
NovaLink install image. You can download the PowerVM
NovaLink installation image from the My Entitled Systems
support site (http://www.ibm.com/server/eserver/ess)
from the My entitled software section. Download the image for the
5692-A6P 2324 NovaLink feature code. Use the installation image to create a
bootable USB drive. Alternatively, you can set up a netboot (bootp) server that has the PowerVM
NovaLink image to install PowerVM
NovaLink from a network.
- Add the Virtual I/O Server installation files to the
PowerVM
NovaLink image. For information about how to add the
Virtual I/O Server installation files to the PowerVM
NovaLink image, see Adding the Virtual I/O Server installation files to the PowerVM NovaLink installer.
- If you plan to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) instead of
Ubuntu on the PowerVM
NovaLink logical partition, ensure
that you have the RHEL media and use a kickstart file. For more information on what the sample
kickstart file looks like, see Installing the PowerVM NovaLink software on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux partition. When the installation completes, you can select the option to install RHEL on the
Confirm Installation panel. The PowerVM
NovaLink installer reboots to the SMS menu after creating and
installing the Virtual I/O Server logical partitions.
- To install PowerVM
NovaLink by using a netboot
(bootp) server, you must set up the netboot server that has the PowerVM
NovaLink image. For information about how to set up a netboot
server, see Setting up network installation of PowerVM NovaLink. If
you are planning to use Software Defined Networking (SDN), add the following line to the
grub.cfg file: pvm-installmode=SDN
- Configure one disk with at least 60 GB of storage for each Virtual I/O Server instance that you plan to create on the server. You
can configure the disks in the local serial-attached Small Computer System Interface (SAS) of the
server storage, or on a storage area network (SAN) storage. If you create two instances of Virtual I/O Server, create each disk on a separate SAS controller or
Fibre Channel (FC) card for redundancy.
- Obtain a static IP address (including gateway, DNS, and netmask) for the PowerVM
NovaLink logical partition and for each of the VIOS logical
partitions. Configure them appropriately during the PowerVM
NovaLink install.
To install the PowerVM
NovaLink environment on a new
managed system, complete the following steps:
- If you are installing PowerVM
NovaLink from
a bootable USB drive, plug the drive into a USB port on the managed system. If you want to network
install PowerVM
NovaLink, connect an Ethernet port (other
than the service processor ports) to the network in which the netboot server resides.
- Prepare the system for PowerVM
NovaLink installation by
using the Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) by completing the following steps.
- If you have already configured the IP address of the FSP of the managed system, access the ASMI
by using the administrator account by using a browser on another system. Otherwise, access the ASMI
by using the PC or notebook. For information about how to connect to ASMI by using the PC or notebook, see Accessing the ASMI using a PC or notebook and web browser.
- If the system is found connected to an HMC,
disconnect it by clicking , then click Reset the server to a non-HMC-managed
configuration.
- If the system is powered on, power off the system from the ASMI by clicking .
- If the system was used earlier, you must clear the system firmware configuration by clicking . Ensure that you select only Reset server firmware settings.
- Enable Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) in the managed system by clicking .
- Set the IPMI password by clicking and entering a password.
- From ASMI, power on the system to boot to the SMS menu by clicking and change AIX®/Linux partition mode boot to Boot to SMS
menu. If Boot to SMS menu is not an available option, click , select PowerVM, and click Save. Set
Server Firmware Start Policy to Running. Click
Save settings and power on.
- Use the IPMI console on a running Linux instance in
another system to access the SMS menu: This Linux
instance must have the ipmitool command installed. Enter the following command,
and then enter the IPMI password (as set in step 2.f)
when prompted to check the power status of the system:
ipmitool -I lanplus -H FSP-ip-addr chassis power status
where
FSP-ip-addr is IP address of the FSP that is used in a browser to access ASMI. Connect the
IPMI console to the system by running the following
command:
ipmitool -I lanplus -H FSP-ip-addr sol activate
On
successful completion of the ipmitool command, a prompt as shown below is
displayed on the IPMI console: [SOL Session operational. Use ~? for help]
- If you are installing PowerVM
NovaLink from the
network, open an SSH terminal session to the netboot server and add the managed system to the
/etc/bootptab file on the netboot server. Choose an IP address, subnet mask, and gateway IP address for the managed system, and note the
IP address of the netboot server.
- Select the boot device by using the SMS menu. You can select either a USB drive or a netboot server as the boot device. For your chosen boot
device, complete the steps listed in the following table.
Boot device type |
Steps |
USB drive |
- From the SMS menu, enter 5 to select boot options.
- Enter 1 to select the install/boot device.
- Enter 7 to view a list of all boot devices, and then enter the number
that corresponds to the USB drive.
- Enter 2 to perform a normal mode boot, and then enter
1 to exit the SMS menu and to start the boot process.
|
Netboot server |
- From the main menu, enter 2 to set up the remote IPL.
- Enter the number that corresponds to the Ethernet adapter that you want to use.
- Enter the number for IPv4 IP addresses.
- Enter the number for BOOTP as your network service.
- Enter 1 for IP parameters.
- Set the IP parameters:
- Client IP Address is the IP address that you set for the managed system
in the /etc/bootptab file on the netboot server.
- Server IP Address is the IP address of the netboot server.
- Gateway IP Address is the gateway IP address that you set for the managed
system in the /etc/bootptab file on the netboot server.
- Subnet Mask is the subnet mask that you set for the managed system in the
/etc/bootptab file on the netboot server.
- Press ESC, enter 3 for ping test, enter 1 for
execute ping test, and verify that the netboot server is reachable.
- Enter M to return to the main menu.
- From the main menu, enter 5 to select boot options.
- Enter 1 to select the install/boot device.
- Select Network, BOOTP and then select the network card that you
configured.
- Enter 2 to perform a normal mode boot, and then enter
1 to exit the SMS menu and to start the boot process.
|
- At the GNU GRand Unified Bootloader (GRUB) screen, select the PowerVM
NovaLink Install/Repair option.
- To install PowerVM
NovaLink in Software Defined
Networking (SDN) mode, select the Advanced options for PowerVM
NovaLink, and select the PowerVM
NovaLink Install/Repair option.
- To install PowerVM
NovaLink in Software Defined
Environment (SDE) mode, use the same procedure as for SDN mode above, then press E to edit
the option, and modify pvm-installmode=SDN to
pvm-installmode=SDE.
- Complete the PowerVM
NovaLink installation
wizard.
- Select Choose to perform installation and press
Next. Use the Tab key to move the cursor to the
Next button and press the Enter or
Space key.
- Select Choose to provide custom values and press
Next.
- Press I Accept for the license agreement and press
Next.
- Enter the user name and password of the administrators of PowerVM
NovaLink and the Virtual I/O Servers and press
Next.
- Enter the network configuration settings for the PowerVM
NovaLink logical partition and press
Next.
- If you choose the SDN install option, complete the following steps:
- Select Choose to enable SDN and press Next.
- Specify the processor and memory settings for the PowerVM
NovaLink logical partition and press
Next.
- Select whether you want I/O redundancy and press Next. If you select
Choose to create I/O redundancy, the installation creates 2 VIOS logical
partitions that collectively provide redundancy for the disk data of the VIOS-client logical
partition.
- Specify the processor and memory settings for VIOS logical partitions and press
Next.
- Verify the physical I/O settings. This screen assigns physical I/O (disk and network) adapters on the server to the VIOS logical
partitions. If you are using the SDN mode, you can also allocate network adapters to the PowerVM
NovaLink logical partition. The network adapters assigned to
the PowerVM
NovaLink logical partition will be assigned to
Open vSwitch-client logical partitions in the managed system.
By default, the installer
automatically divides all physical I/O adapters between the two VIOS instances if VIOS redundancy
was selected and the following conditions apply:
- Each VIOS must be assigned at least one adapter that serves disk I/O
- Each VIOS must be assigned at least one Ethernet adapter that is cabled.
- If using SDN mode, the PowerVM
NovaLink logical
partition must be assigned at least one cabled Ethernet adapter
Note that this screen may consist of multiple sub-screens for a server with many adapters. Use
the
View More and
View Previous buttons to navigate
among the sub-screens. To assign an adapter to an owner-logical partition, use the
Tab key to skip to the correct radio button, press the
Enter or
Space key to select the radio button. Press
Next to go to the next wizard task. To understand the location codes for
POWER8 systems, see
Part locations and location codes.
- If you are using SDN mode, complete the following steps:
- Select the ports to be used for SDN Virtual Network Bridge and press
Next. This screen lists all the network ports from the previously assigned
network adapters. Select two or more ports to create a link aggregation device.
- Select the Link Aggregation parameters for the SDN Virtual Network Bridge and press
Next.
- Select the ports to be used for VIOS-SEA Network Bridges and press
Next. This screen lists all the network ports from the previously assigned network adapters. This
step will be repeated for each VIOS instance.
- If you selected two or more ports to be used for VIOS-SEA Network Bridges, select the
Link-aggregation type and press Next.
- Enter the Network configuration settings for Virtual I/O Servers and press
Next.
- Review the settings in the summary screen and press Finish. In the Summary screen, you can review the configured installation options, and
optionally manually edit the options. To change specific configuration settings, move the cursor to
the specific field and select the Edit Settings button.
- Changing the Time zone: By default the PowerVM
NovaLink
installer sets the default timezone value to America/New_York. You can change the time-zone to a
different value from the Summary screen by doing the following actions:
- To use your own Network Installation Manager (NIM) server for installation of Virtual I/O
Server, complete the following actions:
- Select Edit Settings.
- Set to True and exit.
After you specify installation parameters, the PowerVM
NovaLink installer creates one or two Virtual I/O Server logical partitions. PowerVM
NovaLink installer then creates a Linux logical partition and installs the Ubuntu Linux operating system and the PowerVM
NovaLink software on the partition.
For faster installation of PowerVM
NovaLink on
a system with more than 100 GB of memory, press Ctrl+C when prompted to at the end of the Installer
wizard and choose the reboot option. Choosing to reboot allows you to avoid waiting for the memory
and I/O slots to be reallocated dynamically. Dynamic reallocation of memory can take a long time to
complete on a system with a large amount of memory. However, you must complete the wizard again
after the reboot operation completes.
During the installation of the Virtual I/O Server partitions,
you can open a virtual terminal session for the partitions to change the partition configuration if
necessary. To open a virtual terminal session for a Virtual I/O Server partition, press Ctrl+Z to access a shell prompt and
enter mkvterm --id 2 or mkvterm --id 3. To exit the
virtual terminal session enter CTRL ], then type exit to go
back to the PowerVM
NovaLink installer status screen.
When
PowerVM
NovaLink installation is complete, the
PowerVM
NovaLink installer saves an install configuration
file in the
/var/log/pvm-install/novalink-install.cfg file. You can use this
file for silent installation of
PowerVM
NovaLink from a
bootp server. The file should be added to the bootp server under the root directory of the Web
server or any subdirectory under it, then the grub.cfg file should be updated to indicate the path
of the config file. For example, if the root directory of the Web server is
/var/www/html and the file is added under
/var/www/html/pvm/repo/pvm/, add the following statement to the
grub.cfg
file:
pvm-installer-config=http://$server_address/pvm/repo/pvm/novalink-install.cfg
When the installation of PowerVM
NovaLink is
complete, update the Ubuntu Linux operating system and
the PowerVM
NovaLink software if needed. If the PowerVM
NovaLink logical partition cannot access the online
repository, edit the repository configuration files to remove sources that are not reachable so that
they do not slow the package retrieval process.