IBM Computer Hardware User Manual - Introduction and Overview

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Hardware Management Console (HMC)  Case Configuration Study for LPAR  Management

Automation

High availability considerations for HMCs

Introduction and overview 

The Hardware Management Console (HMC) is a dedicated workstation that 

allows you to configure and manage partitions. To perform maintenance 

operations, a graphical user interface (GUI) is provided.

Functions performed by the HMC include:

Creating and maintaining a multiple partition environment

Displaying a virtual operating system session terminal for each partition

Displaying a virtual operator panel of contents for each partition

Detecting, reporting, and storing changes in hardware conditions

Powering managed systems on and off

Acting as a service focal point 

Activating CoD

Although this Redpaper contains information relevant to POWER4 systems, our 

focus is on the HMC configuration for POWER5 systems. The case studies are 

illustrated with POWER5 systems only.

Basic HMC considerations

The Hardware Management Console (HMC) is based on the IBM eServer™ 

xSeries® hardware architecture running dedicated applications to provide 

partition management for single or multiple servers called managed systems. 

There are two types of HMCs depending on the CPU architecture of the 

managed systems: 

HMC for POWER4 systems

HMC for POWER5 systems

Table 1 shows the current list of the hardware models for HMCs supported in a 

POWER4 or POWER5 environment. The HMCs are available as desktop or 

rack-mountable systems.

Note: POWER4™ systems use a serial line to communicate with the HMC. 

This has changed with POWER5™. The POWER5 systems use a LAN 

connection to communicate with the HMC. POWER4 and POWER5 systems 

cannot be managed by the same HMC.