Installing operating environments from a system plan by using the HMC

You can use the Hardware Management Console (HMC) version 7 to install an operating environment on a logical partition when you deploy a system plan.

For HMCs prior to HMC V7R3.3.0, you can deploy a system plan to install only the Virtual I/O Server operating environment. Beginning with HMC V7R3.3.0, you also can deploy a system plan to install AIX® or Linux® operating environments on logical partitions in a system plan.

Note: You can create a system plan with installation information for an AIX or Linux operating environment only in the System Planning Tool (SPT). If a system plan has installation information for an AIX or Linux operating environment, you still can deploy the system plan to systems that are managed by an earlier version of the HMC. Earlier versions of the HMC Deploy System Plan Wizard can deploy the logical partitions in the system plan and ignore any operating environment installation information in the system plan. The earlier versions of the HMC can deploy all other aspects of the system plan successfully, as long as the other items in the system plan are validated successfully.

System plans that contain AIX or Linux installation information can be deployed only to new logical partitions or to logical partitions that do not already have an operating environment installed on them. If the logical partition already has an operating environment installed, the HMC does not deploy the operating environment that the system plan specifies for that logical partition.

If you plan to deploy a system plan that includes the installation of an operating environment for a logical partition, ensure that the Power off the system after all the logical partitions are powered off attribute for the managed system is not selected. If this attribute is selected, system plan deployment will fail because the deployment process starts partitions and then powers off partitions as part of installing operating environments. Consequently, the managed system will power off during deployment when the deployment process powers off the partitions. To verify the setting for this system attribute, complete these steps:

In the HMC navigation area, select Systems Management > Servers.
In the Tasks area, click Properties. The Properties window for the selected managed system opens.
On the General tab, verify that the Power off the system after all the logical partitions are powered off attribute is not selected, and click OK.

Supported operating environments

The wizard provides support for installing the following operating environments:

AIX: Version 5.3 or 6.1
Red Hat Enterprise Linux: Support is provided for any of the following versions:
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux EL-AS: Version 4, 4 QUI, 4 QU2, 4 QU3, 4QU4, 4.5, or 4.6
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux EL-Server: Version 5 or version 5.1
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server: Version 10, 10 SP1, 9, 9 SP1, 9 SP2, 9 SP3, or 9 SP4
Virtual I/O Server: Version 1.5 and 1.5.2

Using customized automatic installation files for operating environment installation

When you deploy a system plan that contains operating environment installation information, you can use the Deploy System Plan Wizard to specify the resource location that the wizard needs for installing the operating system environment. You also can specify or change operating environment installation settings. However, you cannot use the wizard to create or edit any automatic installation files that might be specified for an operating environment installation.

If you want to use a customized automatic installation file with an operating environment in the system plan, you must create or obtain the necessary file and import the file into the System Planning Tool (SPT). You can then use the SPT to edit the file, if necessary, and to associate the customized file with the system plan for installation of the appropriate operating environment on a logical partition. These automatic installation files, which allow you to provide specialized installation settings, include kickstart files for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AutoYaST files for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and BOSinit.data files for AIX. For example, you might want to create a customized automatic installation file with the necessary setting so that the operating environment is installed specific virtualized resource that is provided to a client partition by the Virtual I/O Server partition over a virtual SCSI connection.

Required information for installing operating environments

During the Customize Operating Environment Install step of the Deploy System Plan Wizard, you provide required resource information for the operating environment installation and make any needed changes to installation settings. This step does not occur if the plan does not contain operating environment installation information. This step includes the following configuration options for installing an operating environment on the target logical partition:

Operating Environment Install Image Resource. This configuration option allows you to specify an existing location for the operating environment installation files. You also can choose to create a new resource location for the installation files that you need to install an operating environment.
Modify Install Settings. This configuration option allows you to provide or change late-binding installation settings for the target logical partition of the operating environment installation. In almost all cases, you need to update a number of late-binding installation settings before you can deploy an operating environment on a logical partition. Late-binding installation settings are those settings that are specific to an individual installation instance, for example, the IP address and subnet mask for the target logical partition on which the operating environment is to be deployed. You also can view settings for any custom automatic installation files that are included with the system plan. However, you cannot change these settings. You can use custom installation files to customize the installation of an operating environment during the system plan deployment process only if the system plan already contains the necessary files. You can create these files and associate them with a system plan only in the System Planning Tool (SPT).
Save Modified Operating Environment Install Information. This configuration option allows you to save any changes that you make to late-binding operating environment installation settings. You can save changes to the current system-plan file, or you can save them to a new system-plan file.