You can use the Hardware Management Console (HMC) to create a system
plan, based on an existing system configuration, and then deploy that
system plan to other managed systems.
When you create a system plan on the HMC, you can deploy the
resulting system plan to create identical logical partition configurations
on managed systems with identical hardware. The system plan contains
specifications for the logical partitions and partition profiles of
the managed system that you used as the basis of creating the system
plan.
The new system plan also can contain hardware information
that the HMC is
able to obtain from the selected managed system. However, the amount
of hardware information that the HMC can capture for the
new system plan varies based on the method that the HMC uses to gather the
hardware information.
Note: When you use the HMC V7R7.1.0, or later,
on POWER7® processor-based
servers, system plans that are created by using the HMC do not include Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) provisioning information.
The HMC can potentially use
two methods: inventory gathering and hardware discovery. For example,
when using hardware discovery, the HMC can detect information
about hardware that is unassigned to a partition or that is assigned
to an inactive partition. Additionally, the HMC can use one or both
of these methods to detect disk information for IBM® i logical partitions.
Ensure
that you meet the requirements for using either or both of the inventory
gathering and hardware discovery methods before you create your system
plan. See System plan creation requirements for
more information.
To create a system plan by using the Hardware Management Console, complete the following
steps:
- In the navigation area, select System Plans. The System Plans page opens.
- In the Tasks area, select Create System Plan. The Create System Plan window opens.
- Select the managed system that you want to use as the basis
for the new system plan.
- Enter a name and description for the new system plan.
- Optional: Select whether you want to retrieve
inactive and unallocated hardware resources. This option
appears only if the managed system is capable of hardware discovery,
and the option is selected by default.
Note: If you do not select
the Retrieve inactive and unallocated hardware resources option,
the HMC does not
perform a new hardware discovery, but instead uses the data in the
inventory cache on the system. The HMC still performs inventory
gathering and retrieves hardware information for any active logical
partitions on the managed server. The resulting new system plan contains
hardware information from the inventory-gathering process and hardware
information from the hardware inventory cache on the system.
- Optional: Select whether you want to view the
system plan immediately after the HMC creates it.
- Click Create.
Now that you have a new system plan, you can export the system
plan, import it onto another managed system, and deploy the system
plan to that managed system.
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