Creating a Logical Partition (LPAR)

Using the PowerVM Create a logical partition (LPAR) task, you can create a new logical partition (LPAR) on a PowerVM® Managed System.

Before you begin

You must deploy and configure a management extender for PowerVM® on a BigFix server. For more information, see Deploying a PowerVM Management Extender and Configuring a PowerVM management extender.

You must activate the following analyses:
  • PowerVM® HMC Overview
  • PowerVM® LPAR Overview
  • PowerVM® Managed System Overview
  • PowerVM® VIOS Overview
To activate the analyses, navigate to the Domain Panel of the Server Automation domain and select Virtualization > PowerVM > Setup and Maintenance and select PowerVM HMC Overview. In the Analysis: PowerVM HMC Overview pane, select Activate. Repeat this action for the PowerVM® Managed System Overview, PowerVM® LPAR Overview, and PowerVM® VIOS Overview analyses.

For information about how to disable validation on certain parameters in the task, see Turning off validation in a task.

Procedure

  1. Open the Server Automation domain.
  2. From the navigation tree in the Server Automation domain, click Virtualization > PowerVM > Managed System Operations > Configuration Management and select PowerVM Create a logical partition (LPAR).
  3. In the Partition section, add the name, ID, and profile details of the new LPAR.
    HMC
    Select the hardware management console on which you want to create the LPAR.
    Managed System
    Select a PowerVM® managed system on which you want to create the LPAR.
    Partition Name
    Enter a name for the new LPAR. Ensure that the name that you enter is unique on the Managed System that you select. To override the validation that is provided on the parameter, select OFF in the Validation column for the parameter. For more information, see Turning off validation in a task.
    Partition ID
    Enter an ID for the new LPAR. Ensure that the ID that you enter is unique on the Managed System that you select. To override the validation that is provided on the parameter, in the Validation column for the parameter and select OFF. For more information, see Turning off validation in a task.
    Profile Name
    Enter a profile name for the new LPAR. To override the validation that is provided on the parameter, select OFF in the Validation column for the parameter. For more information, see Turning off validation in a task.
  4. From the Processing Mode list, select whether you want to add shared or dedicated processors to the new LPAR. If you select shared, the managed system assigns partial processor units from the shared processor pool to the new LPAR. If you select dedicated, the managed system reserves entire physical processors that can be used only by the new LPAR.
  5. In the Processing Settings section, you can configure the processing settings for the new LPAR. From the Processing Mode list, if you select shared, the task displays the following parameters: Minimum Processing Units, Desired Processing Units, and Maximum Processing Units. If you select dedicated, the task removes these parameters. Use the Total Processors available field to view how many processors are available on the managed system that you selected.
    Minimum Processing Units
    Enter the minimum number of processing units that you want to use to create virtual processors for the new LPAR. Each processing unit is equivalent to the processing power of one processor. You can enter whole numbers or decimal numbers. For example, 2 or 2.5 processor units can be assigned to the partition.
    Desired Processing Units
    Enter the number of processing units that you want to use to create virtual processors for the new LPAR. Each processing unit is equivalent to the processing power of one processor. You can enter whole numbers or decimal numbers. For example, 2 or 2.5 processor units can be assigned to the partition.
    Maximum Processing Units
    Enter the maximum number of physical processors that you want to use to create virtual processors for the new LPAR. Each processing unit is equivalent to the processing power of one processor. You can enter whole numbers or decimal numbers. For example, 2 or 2.5 processor units can be assigned to the partition.
    Minimum Processing Units required
    View the minimum processing units to ensure that you enter valid values in the Minimum Processors field.
    Minimum Processors
    Enter the minimum number of processors that you want to assign to the new LPAR. Enter a value that is greater than the minimum processing units. If you select Shared, these processors are virtual. If you select Dedicated, these processors are physical.
    Desired Processors
    Enter the number of virtual processors that you want to assign to the new LPAR. If you select Shared, these processors are virtual. If you select Dedicated, these processors are physical.
    Maximum Processors
    Enter the maximum number of virtual processors that you want to assign to the new LPAR. If you select Shared, these processors are virtual. If you select Dedicated, these processors are physical.
  6. In the Memory Settings section, enter the memory values for the new LPAR. Use the Installed Memory field and Current Memory Available field to determine how much memory is available to assign.
    Minimum Memory
    Select a minimum memory size that you want to set for the selected LPAR.
    Desired Memory
    Select a memory size that you want to set for the selected LPAR.
    Maximum Memory
    Select a maximum memory size that you want to set for the selected LPAR.
  7. In the General Virtual Adapter Settings section, enter the maximum virtual adapter values for the new LPAR.
    Maximum Virtual Adapters
    Enter the maximum number of virtual adapters that you want to connect to the new LPAR.
  8. In the Virtual Ethernet Settings section, enter values for the Ethernet parameters.
    Virtual Ethernet Adapter ID
    Enter the virtual Ethernet adapter ID.
    VLAN
    Enter the ID of the (Virtual Local Area Network) VLAN that you want to configure with the Ethernet adapter. To override the validation that is provided on the parameter, select OFF in the Validation column for the parameter. For more information, see Turning off validation in a task.
  9. In the Storage Settings section, enter the storage values for the new LPAR. From the Storage Type list, select whether you want Virtual Small Computer System Interface (vSCSI) or Node Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) storage type for the new LPAR.
    1. If you select vSCSI, enter the following parameters.




      vSCSI Type
      Select whether you want to add a Hard Disk or Logical Volume storage to be the root disk of the new LPAR. Depending on your selection, the task displays different parameters. If you select Hard Disk, you must enter values for the following parameters: Configure Redundant IO, Hard Disk, parameters. If you select Logical volume, you must enter the values for the following parameters: Logical Volume Group, Logical Volume Size (GB), and Logical Volume Name.
      Client Adapter ID
      Enter the ID of the LPAR client adapter that you want to use for the root disk of the new LPAR.
      VIO Server Partition
      Select the name of the virtual input/output server (VIOS) to which you want to add the adapter to the disk of the new LPAR.
      VIO Server Adapter ID
      Enter the adapter ID of the VIOS that you want to use on the VIOS for the disk of the new LPAR. To override the validation that is provided on the parameter, select OFF in the Validation column for the parameter. For more information, see Turning off validation in a task.
      Configure Redundant IO
      Select whether you want to configure an alternative path for multi path input output (MPIO) redundancy. If you select YES, you must enter the values for the following parameters: Redundant Client Adapter ID, Redundant Server Partition, and Redundant Server Adapter ID. The Hard Disk list is filtered and displays only hard disks that are configured for MPIO.
      Redundant Client Adapter ID
      Enter the ID of the redundant LPAR client adapter that you want to use for the root disk of the new LPAR.
      Redundant Server Partition
      Select the Redundant VIO Server that you want to configure to enable multi-path for the root disk of the new LPAR.
      Redundant Server Adapter ID
      Enter the redundant VIO server adapter ID that you want to use on the redundant VIO server for the root disk of the new LPAR.
      Hard Disk
      Select the physical disk to which you want to attach the vSCSI adapter. Hard disks that are associated to volume groups or LPARs are not listed. Hard disks without a valid physical volume ID (PVID) are not listed.
      Disk Unique ID
      View the unique ID of the hard disk that you selected.
      Disk Description
      View the description of the hard disk.
      Logical Volume Group
      Select the logical volume group from which you want to create storage for the new SCSI disk.
      Logical Volume Size (GB)
      Enter the size, in gigabytes, that you want to allocate to the new SCSI disk.
      Logical Volume Name
      Enter a name for the logical volume.
      Device Name
      Enter a virtual target name that the VIO server associates with the hard disk.
    2. If you select NPIV, enter the values for following parameters:

      Storage Settings section with NPIV selected.


      Storage Settings section with NPIV selected and Configure Redundant IO set to yes.
      Client Adapter ID
      Enter the ID of the LPAR client adapter that you want to use for the root disk of the new LPAR.
      VIO Server Partition
      Select the name of the (VIOS) to which you want to add the adapter for the root disk of the new LPAR.
      VIO Server Adapter ID
      Enter the adapter ID of the VIO server that you want to use on the VIOS for the root disk of the new LPAR.
      Autogenerate WWPNs
      Select whether you want to automatically generate worldwide port names (WWPN) for the client adapter. The default setting is Yes. If you select No, you must enter port name in the WWPN 1 and WWPN 2 fields. If you select No and are configuring MPIO, you must also enter the Redundant WWPN 1 and Redundant WWPN 2 fields.
      WWPN 1
      Enter the first WWPN for the client adapter.
      WWPN 2
      Enter the second WWPN for the client adapter.
      Primary FC Port
      Select the Fibre Channel port that you want to use as the primary port.
      Configure Redundant IO
      Select whether you want to configure an alternative path for multi-path input/output (MPIO) redundancy. If you select YES, the following parameters become visible: Redundant Client Adapter ID, Redundant Server Partition, Redundant Server Adapter ID, Redundant WWPN 1, Redundant WWPN 2, and Secondary FC Port, .
      Redundant Client Adapter ID
      Enter the unique ID of the redundant LPAR client adapter that you want to use.
      Redundant Server Partition
      Select the name of the redundant server to which you want to add the redundant client adapter ID.
      Redundant Server Adapter ID
      Enter the redundant adapter ID of the Virtual I/O Server that you want to use.
      Redundant WWPN 1
      Enter the first redundant WWPN for the client adapter.
      Redundant WWPN 2
      Enter the second redundant WWPN for the client adapter.
      Secondary FC Port
      Select a secondary Fibre Channel port.
  10. When you enter all the mandatory parameters, click Take Action.
  11. In the Take Action dialog box, select the PowerVM® managed system on which you want to create the new LPAR, and click OK.

Results

In the Action: PowerVM Create a logical partition (LPAR) window, you can view the progress of the action. When the Status changes to Complete, the new LPAR is created. In the Computers list in the All Content domain, you can view the new LPAR. You can distinguish an LPAR from other computers by using the Device Type column in the Computers list. The Device Type of the new LPAR is PowerVM LPAR.

What to do next

To work with the new LPAR, you must create a client for the LPAR on a NIM server and then netboot the LPAR. For more information, see Creating a NIM client for an LPAR on a NIM server and Netbooting a logical partition.