Re: Timeline for EOS HMC x86

vHMC is great.

In some customers we use a small Intel NUC ( https://www.intel.la/content/www/xl/es/products/boards-kits/nuc.html ) with Linux and VirtualBox where we can run vHMC + small Win7/8/10 VM with AnyDesk/TeamViewer, so they can access HMC wherever they are. This tiny PC with a fast SSD is really stable, fast (faster than physical HMC), cheap and never fails.

And you can attach Keyboard+Screen+Mouse use "Console mode" on VirtualBox

Diego Kesselman


El 08/08/19 a las 20:36, DrFranken escribió:

Deploying the vHMC to VMWare is quite simple. IBM's documentation on that is very good.

You can do the networking in a myriad of ways but what I've always done is create a new virtual network in vSphere and externalize that to a switch port which then connects to the HMC1/2 port. That is defined in the vHMC as the private network. A second network is used for access to the vHMC from your desktop.

Some advantages of the vHMC:
1) Zero physical footprint if you already have one of the listed virtualization capabilities.
2) Applying update is STUPID faster because the reboot process doesn't wait for 1 week, 2 days, 4 hours, 18 minutes, 11 seconds going through UEFI boot up etc etc. Instead it goes Instantly from shutdown of the HMC code to restart. It's awesome.
3) If you have access to the console through VMWare you get remote access to that. No need to configure BMC etc.
4) You can create a snapshot of the thing before upgrades or PTFs 'just in case'

Some disadvantages of the vHMC:
1) In the event of an emergency that shuts down the DC you have to wait for VMWare to start back up before your HMC is available.
2) There is no simple options to connect a Screen/Keyboard/mouse to your HMC when in the DC.
3) Networking isn't quite as simple as plugging a cable into the HMC port1 and Power Systems HMC1.

        - Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.Frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com - Personal Development IBM i timeshare service.
www.iInTheCloud.com - Commercial IBM i Cloud Hosting.

On 8/8/2019 3:15 PM, Rob Berendt wrote:

Am I reading this right?
V9R1M9xx versions of HMC code go out of service 2020-03-31?
And the follow on release will not run on our two 7042-CR8?
Leaving us the options of:
- Standalone Power system for HMC, like the 7063-CR1?
- Creating HMC lpar on existing Power systems?
- virtualized HMC (vHMC) image in either the VMware, KVM or Xen hypervisors on your own x86 hardware

This is a rapidly approaching budget decision.

I've been tasked to test deploying the last option, at least as a backup HMC(s) for our existing two HMC's which control our two P9's and our one P8.

What are the licensing arrangements for the vHMC option?
Any "how to" instructions for installing vHMC?

Rob Berendt