System planning tool

The System Planning Tool (SPT) helps you to design a managed system that can support a specified set of workloads.

You can design a managed system based on workload data from your current systems, based on new workloads that you want the managed system to support, based on sample systems that are provided with the utility, or based on your own custom specifications. The SPT helps you design a system to fit your needs, whether you want to design a logically partitioned system or you want to design an unpartitioned system. SPT incorporates the function from Workload Estimator to help you create an overall system plan. The SPT opens the Workload Estimator to help you gather and integrate workload data, and provides advanced users with the option of creating a system plan without the help of extra tools.

Note: The SPT currently does not help you plan for high availability on logical partitions or Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) solutions.
You have a number of options available to get started with using the SPT:
  • You can use the sample system plans that the SPT provides as a starting point for planning your system.
  • You can create a system plan based on existing performance data.
  • You can create a system plan based on new or anticipated workloads.
  • You can create a system plan by using the Hardware Management Console (HMC). You can then use the SPT to convert the system plan to SPT format, and modify the system plan for use in system ordering or system deployment.
  • With the SPT, you can copy logical partitions from a system in one system plan to either another system in the same system plan or to a different system in another system plan. For example, you can build up system plans that contain your own sample logical partitions, and then copy one or more of these sample logical partitions into a new system plan that you are creating. You also can copy a logical partition within the same system plan. For example, you can define the attributes of a partition within a system plan and then make seven copies of that partition within the same plan.
  • You can export a system plan as a .cfr file and import it into the marketing configurator (eConfig) tool to use for ordering a system. When you import the .cfr file into the eConfig tool, the tool populates your order with the information from the .cfr file. However, the .cfr file does not contain all the information that the eConfig tool requires. You need to enter all the necessary information before you can submit your order.

If you change the hardware assignments or placement in the system, the SPT validates the changes to ensure that the resulting system fulfills the minimum hardware requirements and hardware placement requirements for the logical partitions.

After making changes to the system, you can save your work as a system plan. You can import this file into your HMC. You then can deploy the system plan to a managed system that the HMC manages. When you deploy the system plan, the HMC creates the logical partitions from the system plan on the managed system that is the target of the deployment.

To download the SPT, see the IBM® System Planning Tool website (http://www.ibm.com/systems/support/tools/systemplanningtool/).