Shops that are implementing Logical
Partitioning (LPAR) have serious challenges ahead. Although some
choose to hire consultants, with the right information and forewarning
about the roadblocks ahead, iSeries shops can tackle this job themselves.
“With this information, you
can better prepare yourself for the bumps that will occur during
an LPAR installation,” says Larry Bolhuis, vice president,
Arbor Solutions, Inc., Grand Rapids, MI. Arbor Solutions is an iSeries
consulting company that specializes in hardware configuration.
Last week, the Insider
revealed the gotchas to prepare for when planning for LPAR (IW 05/26/03).
Here are the top gotchas and tips to be aware of when implementing
LPAR on your system.
Gotcha #1: Adding IOPs
to shared buses. When adding an IOP to a shared bus, it
may be necessary to remove and add the bus, IOP, and IOA(s) to the
appropriate partitions. For the steps to remove and add an IOP to
a shared bus, see box, below.
“When you first turn on the
machine, it’s not partitioned yet, so all the buses, IOPs,
and IOAs are in the primary. As you move resources around, you have
to tell the primary that the hardware isn’t there anymore.
If you don’t, your partitions may not come up correctly and
you may have to shut them all down,” says Bolhuis.
Gotcha #2: Exposed disks.
RAID sets moved from PCI to PXI-I RAID IOAs will be rebuilt upon
the first IPL and disks will be exposed. During that time, the system
and its data are unprotected.
Gotcha #3: DST/SST user
profiles and password requirements. As of V5R1, user profiles
and passwords must be done via DST (in V5R2, this can be done via
SST), must be defined in every partition, and require the assignment
of specific authorities. Also, using the CHGPWD command does not
change the password.
Note: In V5R1, you can
reset DST/SST passwords to default values by QSECOFR using CHGDSTPWD.
This resets all IBM-supplied DST/SST profiles.
Gotcha #4: Upgrading from
V5R1 to V5R2 deletes the Service Tools entry. Replace it
before doing the CUMe PTF. “This is really important to know
because you are going to have to do another IPL after that. IBM
says this is for your own protection, but it is really just a pain
in the neck,” says Bolhuis.
Gotcha #5: Service Tools
requirements. Service Tools device profiles must be set
up for every PC that is going to connect as a console. The Service
Tools user profiles must be set up for every user who will require
SST/DST sign-on rights.
Tips for LPAR implementation
Tip #1: Prior to
partitioning systems, do a PWRDWNSYS RESTART(*NO). Let it stay shut
down to allow everything to cool, then restart DST and verify that
all the hardware is still reporting in without any failures. Pay
special attention to disk units.
Tip #2: “Keep
the primary partition as thin as possible. After the initial install,
apply PTFs to the primary partition only when necessary,”
advises Bolhuis.
Tip #3: Pull disk
units that you intend to mirror. Reinstall and mirror them when
the partition is installed.
Tip #4: Before
carving up the hardware for the partitions, start Parity on all
of the disk units at once to save time.
1. Be sure that the primary partition
is in DST during a manual IPL and all other partitions are
off.
2. Remove the bus from all of the partitions.
3. Add the bus as owned shared to the
primary partition.
4. Add all of the IOPs on the bus as owned
dedicated to the primary.
5. Verify that all of the hardware within
the bus is reporting by displaying allocated I/O resources
for partition.
6. Remove the IOPs that should not be
on the primary from the primary.
7. Add the bus as use shared, and the
IOPs as owned dedicated, to the secondary partitions where
the hardware should be allocated.
8. Start the secondary partitions. Note:
If disk has been added to a secondary partition, be sure to
set the IPL status on the partition to manual prior to starting
the IPL.
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