Manage Install Resources

Use this page to manage operating environment installation resources for your Hardware Management Console (HMC). You can add new installation resources to the HMC or you can remove existing installation resources from the HMC.

You can use the HMC to deploy a system plan that contains information for installing one or more operating environments on one or more logical partitions. To install an operating environment as part of deploying a system plan, the HMC must be able to access and to use an installation resource for that operating environment.

An operating environment installation resource is the necessary set of installation files for a specific version of an operating environment at a specific release and modification level. The installation resource can be on the local hard drive for the HMC or it can be on a Network Installation Management (NIM) server that the HMC can access.

When you define and create a local installation resource, you must meet the following prerequisites:

• You can define only one local installation resource for a specific operating environment version and modification level. For example, you can define a local installation resource for AIX 5.3 and another for AIX 6.1 but you cannot define two local installation resources for the same AIX version and modification level. This restriction applies to all listed operating environments.
• The HMC must have enough free hard disk space for the necessary set of operating environment installation files. The HMC creates the installation resource in the same local hard drive location that the HMC uses for main store dumps. Consequently, it is recommended that you maintain a certain amount of free hard drive space to avoid potential main store dump problems because main store dumps are necessary to help resolve some types of HMC errors. The typical main store dump averages between 4 to 8 gigabytes (GB), so consider maintaining at least 10 GB of free hard drive space for these dumps when you define and create local installation resources for the HMC.
• The HMC must have a minimum of 3GB of free hard disk space on the local hard drive. If the amount of available space is below this minimum, the Add button is unavailable and you cannot define and add a local installation resource.
• You must have the operating environment installation media available to copy to the HMC local hard drive. The type of media that you need varies based on the type of operating environment you want to be able to install. You can use CDs or DVDs as the installation image source for Red Hat and SLES operating environments. However, you can use DVDs only as the installation image source for AIX and Virtual I/O Server operating environments.

When you define a remote NIM server installation resource, you must meet a number of prerequisite conditions to ensure that the HMC can access and use the installation resource:

• The complete set of necessary operating environment installation files must exist on the NIM server within a uniquely named NIM resource group. Note: You can define a remote resource for AIX and Virtual I/O Server operating environments only.
• You can define multiple remote installation resources for a specific operating environment version and modification level, as long as each installation resource is within a different NIM named resource group.
• You must know the fully qualified host name of the NIM server.
• You must know the resource group name that contains the necessary set of operating environment installation files.
• You must set up the HMC to be able to access the NIM server and use the operating environment installation files during system plan deployment. The HMC must be able to run secure shell commands by means of an ssh connection to access the NIM server successfully. Consequently, you must ensure that the HMC can provide an appropriate cryptographic key to the NIM server by completing the following steps:
  1. Open an HMC command prompt and run the following command to generate the RSA keys that the HMC needs for ssh connections and to place the keys in an accessible file in the HMC HOME directory: ssh-keygen -t rsa -f /home/hscroot/ssh_keys. This command creates two files: one called ssh_keys and one called ssh_keys.pub that contain the needed RSA keys. The ssh_keys file contains the private key that the HMC needs for establishing an ssh connection and this file needs to remain in the /home/hscroot subdir; the ssh_keys.pub file contains the public key that the NIM server must have to complete the ssh connection with the HMC.
  2. On the remote NIM server, append or copy the content of the /home/hscroot/ssh_keys.pub file into the /.ssh/authorized_keys file on the NIM server.

Note: Remote clients defined on the NIM server remain in place after installation of the operating environment on a partition for post installation management. The short hostname of the system will identify this remote client.

Each installation resource that you define and create for the HMC is available for selection in the Customize Operating Environment Install step of the Deploy System Plan Wizard. If the installation resource that you want to use for a selected partition is not available when you perform this step, you can click New Install Resource to open the Manage Install Resources window to define and create a new installation resource.

Select one of the following topics to learn more about using this page:

Install Resources

Available HMC disk space