We at Advanced Technology Support, UK have used the HMC based on POWER8 for 4 months but it was based on a proto-type HMC based on the S821LC Supermicro Stratton.

This week, our genuine official HMCs that use the POWER8 chips arrived, so I thought I would using pictures, show you what we did to get them installed.

You can find the IBM Documentation information here:

• https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/power8?topic=hmc-installing-7063-cr1-into-rack

This is part one covering the POWER8-based Hardware Management Console installation.

The second part covers the software setup. You can find it here:  HMC 7063 CR1 software install POWER8-based HMC

The HMC as delivered:

Cut the straps and slice the sellotape:

Open the box (not rocket science so far :-):

The Bits box has Mains cables, a plastic bag of bots & washes and a plastic bag of 4 converting brackets:

One of the converter plates for round-holed racks like the classic IBM T42 rack (if you have square-holed racks, you might not get one)

The HMC still in the box after removing the Bits and Rails:

Lift out the HMC, break the seal and take off the plastic wrapper:

The front view of the HMC CR1 POWER8 based:

Remove the plastic from the handles whenever it suits you.

The rear view:

Removing the plastic film from the two of the machine (there are two parts):

You do not need to look inside the HMC, but here is what you find:

Briefly:

1. 1U high in the rack
2. No extra adapters - the Ethernet is onboard
3. Two Power Supplies Right Bottom of the picture
4. One POWER8 Socket is filled - it is under the bottom middle black air baffle
5. Four x 8 GB DIMMs = 32 GB in total (default minimum) - visible on either side of the CPU (black air baffle)
6. Eight small fans
7. Two 1 TB Disks - can't be seen here but on the far left.

A side view:

Rails

Prepare the Side Rails - it is simple:

Only do the screws up finger tight - you may have to slightly adjust the length once both ends are connected to the rack sides.

If you have a round holed server rack

Below, If you have round holes in the rack sides then you need to convert the default fitted squire bracket to a round bracket:

The square bracket needs to be changed to the round bracket.

Server fixing bolts

If you intend bolting the Server to the rack - find the screws and washed now as it is easier to check you have the right ones.

Installing the Rails

Below, note that there is a springy strip near the end of the rails.  You will have to have this in the position shown when you add the rail to the rack.

Once the square or round bracket is firmly in the rack holes let the spring move back into place on the other side of the rack hole bar.

Don't overbend it.  We found a screwdriver that was simplest to move it roughly 5  to 8 mm.

Showing the rail mounted

Note: do the front and back.

Tighten up the mid-rail screws

The HMC CR1 already has the other part of the rail mounted on the sides. So just line up the HMC box with the rail slots, make sure you have it nice and square and gently push it along the rails.

It is a metal-to-metal baring so it a little stiff but do not force it in - if it snags, you are probably not straight.

If you want to add the securing bolts do them now - they bolt the HMC fount to the rack hole brackets.

You will need a cross-head screwdriver (medium size).

Note: to perform any work inside of the HMC (due to the lid can't be removed while on the rails)
you have to completely lift the HMC out of the rack and onto a table.

A view around the back. The bottom HMC is already plugged in and working the top one is the one just added.

Connecting it up

You will need

• VGA screen and USB keyboard and mount.
• Two power supply cables from the HMC to two different Power Distribution Units (PDU)
• Three Ethernet cables
  1. BMC (service processor)
     • This will allow remote HMC power-on/off using IPMI
     •  and remote low-level diagnostics and stats
     • and even remote Graphics access to the BMC
     • We connect this to our systems admin network.
     • In the picture, it is the Ethernet cable with three green stripes
  2. Regular HMC remote UI access 
     • We connect this to our systems admin network
     • In the picture, this any one of the four Ethernet ports to the left
  3. The Private POWER Service Processor (FSP) network 
  • This is exactly the same as for the older Intel-based HMC
  • This is used to control and monitor the POWER servers
  • In the picture, this is any one of the four Ethernet ports to the left

This took me 1 hour of photographing and 2 hours to write this blog - in practice, this would take about 20 minutes (after the first one).

It is all simple stuff. 

Once the hardware is installed, the power and Ethernet connected there is then the HMC software to sort out - I will cover that in the next AIXpert Blog.

The good news this is a little simpler than on Intel.

You can find the IBM Documentation information here:

• https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/power8?topic=hmc-installing-7063-cr1-into-rack

This is part one covering the POWER8 based Hardware Management Console installation.

The second part covers the software setup. You can find it here:  HMC 7063 CR1 software install POWER8 based HMC

One final point, the plan is to withdraw the Intel-based HMC sooner rather than later.

The POWER8-based HMC is faster, very slightly cheaper and has more memory.

Once running it is hard to determine if it is Intel or POWER (apart from the speed) as the GUI and CLI are identical.

You can work it out - if you find a way (apart from physically looking or the feature code) then add it to the comments.