When migrating from a physical Hardware Management Console (HMC) to a virtual Hardware Management Console (vHMC) there are a bunch of steps that should be taken. At the very least one will want to do “save update data” as well as to “backup critical console data”. These can be used in the case of failure. Additionally, one will want to snag some basic information, like networking information so that it can be re-populated on the vHMC.
A couple of commands to capture the version of HMC running, as well as the model and serial number of the HMC unit, and the base networking information.
lshmc -v
lshmc -V
lshmc -nIf you are in a state that the HMC is too far back to perform a backup / restore operation, then you’ll have to capture some information manually and re-populate it once you bring the vHMC online. Typically the process to migrate over is:
- perform backup (backup critical console data and save upgrade data)
- capture relevant information to place on new server
- save any system plans
- etc
- Close out any serviceable events
- remove the managed systems
- power down HMC system (or remove the relevant network cables for HMC private network)
Power up and configure the vHMC appliance. If the physical device networking was configured to have seperate private and open networks, you’ll want to determine the VLANs they were running on. Most important one being the private network. In the case of using the x86 vHMC appliance, you will most likely be utilizing something like zen, esx/vshpere, vmware and you will want to make the same network vlans utilized from the physical HMC to be available to the vHMC appliance.
Once you power on the vHMC appliance, you will configure the networking first. Usually it’s easier to configure the networking similar to how the old one was setup. Once you bring the vHMC online (assuming it is hmc v10+ with just one hmc in the environment, you’ll be fine. However, in the case of dual HMCs, you typically have to migrate both HMCs to vHMCs within a short period of time. Having the managed server available to the v9- HMC and the v10+ vhmc may cause some problems. At the very least, the physical HMC may complain about a firmware version mismatch. Another item could be causing profile corruption. It may be more beneficial to close all servicable events on both physical HMCs and remove the managed systems from the both of them, PRIOR to connecting the managed systems into the new vHMC appliance.
More will be posted on this subject in the near future, as I have a couple of hmc to vhmc’s pending.