Re: Power7/HMC: How to automatically start/stop VIOS with the hardware

Vmware doesn't really expose the VM shutdown and startup order UNLESS you
delve deep into the ESXi interface, so, for enterprise purposes, automatic
shutdown or restart is not something "supported".
I know it because I had it configured and I wondered why it wasn't working
and it turns out that doing migrations between hosts resets any automatic
configuration, so now you can get the domain controllers started in the
wrong order or last of all and let all of the servers run around timing out
because they expected the AD up and etc.
I understand what you mean, but it is not something that is really used for
most enterprises (and most enterprises don't even fully shutdown those
machines, I just did some HMC, FSP, IO, VIOS and PTF updates for a customer
and the only full shutdown was for the FSP code and that one we handled
manually so it took the least time possible, all while the other machine
was providing service)


On Tue, 26 Mar 2024 at 15:02, Patrik Schindler <poc@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hello Roberto,

Am 26.03.2024 um 15:57 schrieb Roberto José Etcheverry Romero <
yggdrasil.raiker@xxxxxxxxx>:

I would counter with, "Why would you shutdown the hypervisor before the

VMs?"

The ESXi does the shutdowns for me, saving me thinking effort and manual
labor of logging into each VM and manually shut it down. Once central point
to be touched. Why should the admin employ manual labor when the computer
itself can do this? Apparently some vendors care and implement this, others
do not. :-)

In the PowerVM world you have the hardware hypervisor, which is the

machine itself and the HMC says "are you sure you want to shutdown this?

Yes, I'm aware. And I would expect it to offer to orderly shut down the
LPARs on my behalf at this point, including the logical conclusion that
VIOS has to be the last partition to be shut down. This is called being
user friendly. Or admin friendly, in this case.

Does your DB Server warn you about shutting down the APP server or

closing all connections before shutting it down? No, that is for whoever
owns the machine to decide.

No it does not. I think your comparison is flawed. If you shut down the
database server, there is no data corruption happening. If you switch off a
hypervisor with running VMs/LPARs, that's a completely different impact.

Going back to ESXi, the storage won't complain if I tell it to shutdown

while the entire VMware environment is using it...

I was talking about VIOS which is AFAIK doing duty for the local host
only. ESXi has "VIOS" integrated. No difference in regard to external or
internal storage.

If you utilize "external" storage (FC, iSCSI, NFS, whatever) you are
completely right and there is no difference between platforms. You have to
think yourself then. But again, that wasn't my point.

And that is why the whole automation ecosystem exists. You set your own

rules and use the provided tools to implement it, it is pretty easy after
all.

With LPARS on Midrange, I'm apparently forced to bolt together something
other vendors have included in the base software for a very long time. That
is the basic message. Maybe someone @IBM reads this and starts to consider.
;-)

:wq! PoC

--
This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing list
To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: https://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at https://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.

Please contact support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx for any subscription related
questions.