Partition validation on the HMC

During the partition validation process, the HMC compares the logical partition information in the system plan with any existing logical partitions on the managed system to ensure that the system plan can deploy successfully to the targeted managed system.

Any existing logical partition that is found on the managed system must appear in the system plan and must match the system plan as it appears on the managed system. For example, hardware on the managed system that is referenced by the actual partition must at least match the hardware that is referenced by that same partition in the system plan. When you validate an existing logical partition, the HMC validates the following items for that logical partition:
  1. Whether a logical partition in the system plan has the same partition ID and name as the existing logical partition specified in the machine default configuration.
  2. Whether an existing logical partition has partition profiles that match each partition profile that is specified for the logical partition in the system plan.
  3. Whether the partition profiles for any existing logical partitions contain the resources that are specified in the corresponding partition profiles in the system plan.
  4. Whether the partition on the managed system has only those same virtual adapters and adapter types (and that they use the same adapter ports) as the virtual adapters and adapter types that are specified for the partition in the system plan.

For example, if the server has an existing logical partition with a partition ID 1, the HMC examines the logical partition in the system plan that has a partition ID of 1. If this logical partition exists and has a partition profile that is named SUPPORT, the HMC looks at the existing logical partition to see whether it also has a partition profile that is named SUPPORT. If so, the HMC verifies that the resources that are specified in the SUPPORT partition profile in the system plan are contained in the SUPPORT partition profile in the existing logical partition.

When the HMC validates partition profiles, it compares the following resources in the partition profiles:
  • Processor and memory amounts, including 5250 commercial processing workload (5250 CPW) where applicable
  • Physical I/O slot assignments
The following examples illustrate how the HMC compares resources in the partition profiles during the validation process to determine whether the system plan is valid for a managed system:
  • If the SUPPORT partition profile in the system plan specifies 2 GB of memory and the SUPPORT partition profile for the existing logical partition specifies 3 GB of memory, the amount of memory is valid.
  • If the SUPPORT partition profile in the system plan specifies 4 GB of memory and the SUPPORT partition profile for the existing logical partition specifies 3 GB of memory, the amount of memory is not valid.
  • If physical I/O slot P1 is assigned to the SUPPORT partition profile in the system plan but not to the SUPPORT partition profile for the existing logical partition, the physical slot assignment is not valid.
  • If physical I/O slot P2 is not assigned to the SUPPORT partition profile in the system plan, it does not matter whether slot P2 is assigned to the SUPPORT partition profile for the existing logical partition.