IBM p5 550, Technical Overview And Introduction

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IBM System p5 550 and 550Q Technical Overview and Introduction
2.13.1 High availability using the HMC
The HMC is an important hardware component. HACMP Version 5.3 High Availability cluster
software can be used to activate resources automatically (where available), thus becoming an
integral part of the cluster. For some environments, we recommend working with redundant
HMCs.
POWER5 and processor-based systems have two service processor interfaces
(HMC port 1 and HMC port 2) available for connections to the HMC. We recommend using
both of them for redundant network configuration. Depending on your environment, you have
multiple options to configure the network. Figure 2-17 shows one possible highly available
configuration.
Figure 2-17 Highly available HMC and network architecture
2.13.2 IBM System Planning Tool
The IBM System Planning Tool (SPT) is the next generation of the IBM LPAR Validation Tool
(LVT). It contains all of the functions from the LVT and is integrated with the IBM Systems
Workload Estimator (WLE). System plans generated by the SPT can be deployed on the
system by the Hardware Management Console (HMC). The SPT is available to assist the
user in system planning, design, validation, and to provide a system validation report that
reflects the user’s system requirements while not exceeding system recommendations. The
SPT is a PC based browser application designed to be run in a stand-alone environment.
The IBM System Planning Tool can be downloaded at no additional charge from:
http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/support/tools/systemplanningtool/
The System Planning Tool (SPT) helps you design a system to fit your needs. You can use
the SPT to design a logically partitioned system or you can use the SPT to design an
Note: In Figure 2-17, only the hardware management network (LAN1 and LAN2) is highly
available for simplicity. Management network (LAN3) can by made highly available by using
a similar concept and by adding more Ethernet adapters to LPARs and HMCs.
HMC1 HMC2
p5 System A p5 System B
1 2
FSP
1 2
FSP
LAN 1 LAN 2
LPAR A1
LPAR A2
LPAR A3
LPAR B1
LPAR B2
LPAR B3
eth0
et
h1
eth0
et
h1
LAN1 – hardware management network for
first FSP ports (private)
LAN2 – hardware management network for
second FSP ports (private), separate
network hardware than LAN1
LAN3 - management network for WebSM
acces to HMC from outside (public) and
for HMC to LPAR communication
LAN3 - outside connection