Hardware Management Console

The Hardware Management Console (HMC) is a hardware appliance that you can use to configure and control one or more managed systems. You can use the HMC to create and manage logical partitions and activate Capacity Upgrade on Demand. Using service applications, the HMC communicates with managed systems to detect, consolidate, and send information to service and support for analysis.

The HMC also provides terminal emulation for the logical partitions on your managed system. You can connect to logical partitions from the HMC itself, or you can set up the HMC so that you can connect to logical partitions remotely through the HMC. HMC terminal emulation provides a dependable connection that you can use if no other terminal device is connected or operational. HMC terminal emulation is useful during initial system setup before you configure your terminal of choice.

This image represents AIX, IBM i, and Linux logical partitions installed on IBM Systems hardware.

In this figure, you can see the logical partitions and the server firmware on the server. The server firmware is code that is stored in system flash memory on the server. The server firmware directly controls the resource allocations on the server and the communications between logical partitions on the server. The HMC connects with the server firmware and specifies how the server firmware allocates resources to the managed system.

If you use a single HMC to manage a server, and the HMC malfunctions or becomes disconnected from the server firmware, then the server continues to run, but you cannot change the logical partition configuration of the server. If required, you can attach an extra HMC to act as a backup and to provide a redundant path between the server and service and support.

Partitioning by using the HMC is supported on all IBM® Power systems models, although some models require you to enter a PowerVM® Editions activation code before partitioning the managed system.

This image represents AIX and Linux logical partitions that are installed on a managed system with an HMC.

In this figure, you can see the logical partitions and the server firmware on the server. The server firmware is code that is stored in system flash memory on the server. The server firmware directly controls the resource allocations on the server and the communications between logical partitions on the server.

If you use a single HMC to manage a server, and the HMC malfunctions or becomes disconnected from the server firmware, then the server continues to run, but you cannot change the logical partition configuration of the server. If required, you can attach an extra HMC to act as a backup and to provide a redundant path between the server and service and support.

Partitioning by using the HMC is supported on all server models. Some models require you to enter an activation code before you can create logical partitions on the server.

The PowerVM NovaLink architecture enables management of highly scalable cloud deployment by using the PowerVM technology and OpenStack solutions. The architecture provides a direct OpenStack connection to a PowerVM server. The NovaLink partition runs the Linux® operating system and the partition runs on a server that is virtualized by PowerVM. The server is managed by PowerVC or other OpenStack solutions.

When a server is co-managed by the HMC and PowerVM NovaLink, and PowerVM NovaLink is in the controller mode, you can run partition change operations only by using PowerVM NovaLink. If you want to run partition change operations by using the HMC, you must set the HMC to the controller mode. Run the following command from the command line to set the HMC to the controller mode: 
chcomgmt -m <managed system> -o setcontroller -t norm