Question & Answer
Question
How can I boot a Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) partition to SMS using the HMC?
Cause
One of the primary reasons for booting a VIOS partition into the System Management Services (SMS) menu is to change the boot device order in situations where the VIOS is not accessible remotely or via console. For example, the VIOS may be failing to boot or padmin password was lost and needs to be recovered. In such cases, the boot device will need to be changed to boot from the optical device or network adapter (NIM boot) in order to boot the partition into maintenance mode.
The procedure covers three examples:
- Example 1 - How to Display the Current Boot Device order
- Example 2 - How to Change Boot Device Order to Boot From Optical Device/CD-ROM
- Example 3 - How to Change Boot Device Order to Boot from disk (VIOS OS/rootvg)
Answer
To boot the VIOS partition to SMS, login to the HMC using the Classic GUI, as hscroot, and select the following options:
In the navigation area
1. Expand Systems Management > expand Servers > select the managed system name where the VIOS partition in question resides.
In the contents area
2. Select the VIOS partition > click Tasks > Operations > Shutdown > Operating System > OK
3. Once the partition Status is Not Activated, click Tasks > Operations > Activate > Profile (This will open the Activate Logical Partition window)
4. Click on the Advanced button > change Boot mode to SMS > click OK
5. If you need to open a console session, select "Open a terminal window or console session" at this point. Note: only one console session can be opened at any given time > click OK. This will boot the VIOS partition to the SMS Main Menu as shown below:
At this point, you can select the desired option by entering the number of your choice. Then exit SMS to continue with the boot process.
Next are some examples of the most frequently used options.
EXAMPLE 1 - How to Display the Current Boot Device order
> select 5. Select Boot Options
> select 2. Configure Boot Device Order
> select 6. Display Current Setting
Note: This may take some time to scan for all bootable devices if VIOS has SAN-attached storage.
In this example, an internal SCSI disk with VIOS version 2.2.3 was found to be set as the first boot device:
> Select the desire key from the Navigation keys to continue. For example, to exit SMS, type X.
EXAMPLE 2 - How to Change Boot Device Order to Boot From Optical Device/CD-ROM
Requirement - Ensure the adapter serving the optical device on the managed system has been allocated to the VIOS partition before you proceed. For assistance allocating the physical resource to the partition, contact your local HMC Support Representative.
From the SMS Main Menu
> select 5. Select Boot Options
> select 2. Configure Boot Device Order
> select 7. Restore Default Setting
Note: This option may take some time to scan for all bootable devices if VIOS has SAN-attached storage. By default, this option will set the optical device as the first boot device, as shown below, granted the physical I/O resource was allocated to the VIOS partition and working OK.
Example 3 - How to Change Boot Device Order to Boot from disk (VIOS OS/rootvg)
From the SMS Main Menu
> select 5. Select Boot Options
> select 2. Configure Boot Device Order
> select 1. Select 1st Boot Device
> select 8. List All Devices (This option may take some time to scan for all bootable devices if VIOS has SAN-attached storage. Alternatively, if VIOS boots from internal disk, you can manually select the Device type and follow the prompts.
In this example, the VIOS boots from SAN (fibre channel attached) storage (Device number 6, as shown below):
> select the VIOS boot disk option (#6, in this case)
> select 2. Set Boot Sequence: Configure as 1st Boot Device
The Current Boot Sequence should now reflect the VIOS boot disk as the 1st boot device, as shown below:
> type X to exit SMS
> select 1. Yes to proceed with normal boot process.
Expect to see the IBM banner followed by the "Welcome to Virtual I/O Server." message as shown below and eventually the IBM Virtual I/O Server login prompt
Related Information
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Document Information
More support for:
PowerVM Virtual I/O Server
Software version:
VIOS 2.2
Operating system(s):
AIX
Document number:
735731
Modified date:
20 October 2021
UID
ibm10735731