Hardware Management Console

The Hardware Management Console (HMC) is a system that controls managed systems, including the management of logical partitions and use of Capacity Upgrade on Demand. Using service applications, the HMC communicates with managed systems to detect, consolidate, and send information to IBM^® for analysis.

This figure illustrates the logical partitions and the server firmware on the IBM Systems and eServer™ hardware. The server firmware is code that is stored in system flash memory on the server. The server firmware directly controls the resource allocations on the server and the communications between logical partitions on the server. The HMC connects with the server firmware and specifies how the server firmware allocates resources on the server.

If you use a single HMC to manage a server, and the HMC malfunctions or becomes disconnected from the server firmware, then the server continues to run, but you will not be able to change the logical partition configuration of the server or manage the server. If desired, you can attach an additional HMC to act as a backup and to provide a redundant path between the server and IBM service and support.

Partitioning using the HMC is supported on all IBM System i5™ and eServer i5, IBM System p5™ and eServer p5, and IBM eServer OpenPower™ server models, although some models require you to enter an Advanced POWER™ Virtualization activation code before you can partition the server.

• Partition profile
  A partition profile is a record on the Hardware Management Console (HMC) that specifies a possible configuration for a logical partition. When you activate a partition profile, the managed system attempts to start the logical partition using the configuration information in the partition profile. This topic includes a flash demo that shows an example scenario of creating partition profiles on server hardware.
• Partition profiles that use all of the system resources
  You can create partition profiles on your Hardware Management Console (HMC) that specify all of the resources on the managed system. If you activate such a partition profile when no logical partitions are running on the managed system, then the managed system assigns all of its resources to the logical partition to which the partition profile belongs.
• System profile
  A system profile is an ordered list of partition profiles that is used by the Hardware Management Console (HMC) to start the logical partitions on a managed system in a specific configuration. This topic includes a flash demo that shows an example scenario of creating system profiles on server hardware.