The manufacturing default configuration is the initial partition setup of the managed system as received from your service provider.
When your system is in the manufacturing default configuration, you can install an operating system on the managed system and use the managed system as a nonpartitioned server. In this state, you do not need to manage the system using a Hardware Management Console (HMC).
If you choose to attach an HMC to the managed system for reasons other than partitioning (such as to activate Capacity on Demand), then the HMC displays the managed system as having one logical partition with one partition profile. All of the physical hardware resources on the system are automatically assigned to this logical partition, and any new physical hardware resources that are added to the managed system are added automatically to this logical partition. The name of the logical partition is the serial number of the managed system, and the name of the partition profile is default. If the server is an IBM System i5™ and eServer™ i5 server, then the i5/OS® logical partition automatically has service authority. You do not need to make any partitioning changes on the server if you do not want to do so.
However, if you use the HMC to create, delete, change, copy, or activate any logical partitions or partition profiles on the managed system, the system will then be in partition mode. You must then use the HMC to manage the managed system. If the server is an IBM System i5 and eServer i5 server, then you must also change the managed system properties on the HMC so that one of the i5/OS logical partitions on the managed system is the service partition for the managed system. If a managed system is managed using an HMC, and you want to return the managed system to an nonpartitioned state or if you want to partition the managed system with the Integrated Virtualization Manager or the Virtual Partition Manager, then you must follow a special procedure to reset the server. For more information about this procedure, see Resetting the server to a nonpartitioned configuration.
Managed systems that are partitioned using the Integrated Virtualization Manager are not managed with an HMC. If a managed system is managed using the Integrated Virtualization Manager, then you do not need to reset the server to return the managed system to a nonpartitioned state. Also, you do not need to reset the server if you want to switch from using the Integrated Virtualization Manager to using an HMC. To switch to using an HMC, back up the data on each logical partition, attach the HMC to the server, create the logical partitions, and restore the data to the storage assigned to each logical partition.
Managed systems that are partitioned using the Virtual Partition Manager are not managed with an HMC. If a managed system is managed using the Virtual Partition Manager, then you do not need to reset the server to return the managed system to a nonpartitioned state. Also, you do not need to reset the server if you want to switch from using the Virtual Partition Manager to using an HMC. To switch to using an HMC, back up the data on each logical partition, attach the HMC to the server, create the logical partitions, and restore the data to the storage assigned to each logical partition.