The LPAR tool consists of the 4 commands hmc, ms, lpar and vios. All 4 commands use SSH to one or more HMCs to perform their functions. Therefore, the LPAR tool must first know which HMCs there are and which user account should be used on the HMCs.

In the following, we assume that the LPAR tool commands are found by the shell, i.e. that either the shell’s search path has been adjusted accordingly or the commands have been stored in a directory that is already covered by the shell’s PATH variable.

Use the command “hmc show” to check whether HMCs are already known:

$ hmc show
NAME  SERIAL_NUM  TYPE_MODEL
$

In our case, no HMCs are known yet.

We will now register our first HMC. Replace the name hmc01 in all subsequent commands with the name of your HMC. If the account name on the HMC is the same as on the local system, then the HMC can be registered using the command “hmc add“. If this is the case for you, then start the following command (replace hmc01 with the name of your HMC):

$ hmc add hmc01
hmc01:
   ms02
    > aix04
    > aix06
    > ms02-vio2
    > ms02-vio1
   ms03
    > aix01
    > aix03
    > ms03-vio2
    > ms03-vio1
    > aix05
   ms01
    > aix07
    > aixnim
    > aix09
    > ms01-vio2
    > ms01-vio1
   ms04
    > aix02
    > aix08
    > ms04-vio2
    > ms04-vio1
$

The output of the command shows the managed systems found, as well as all LPARs on these managed systems.

If the account name on the HMC does not match your account name on the local system, then also specify the account name to be used on the HMC. Add the account name, separated by an “@“, before the HMC name (replace user01 with the account name to be used):

$ hmc add user01@hmc01
hmc01:
   ms02
    > aix04
    > aix06
    > ms02-vio2
    > ms02-vio1
   ms03
    > aix01
    > aix03
    > ms03-vio2
    > ms03-vio1
    > aix05
   ms01
    > aix07
    > aixnim
    > aix09
    > ms01-vio2
    > ms01-vio1
   ms04
    > aix02
    > aix08
    > ms04-vio2
    > ms04-vio1
$

Registration with the command “hmc add” only needs to be done once per HMC. The information about the HMCs is stored in your home directory in the file hmc.list. Look at the contents of the file:

$ cat ~/hmc.list
hmc01:322480C:7042-CR8:user01@hmc01
$

The LPAR tool uses this file to determine which HMCs are available.

You can add additional HMCs at any time in the same manner as described above. The account name to be used can easily be different on the various HMCs. The account name to be used for an HMC is specified in the file ~/hmc.list.

Use the command “hmc show” to display which HMCs are currently known to the LPAR tool:

$ hmc show
NAME   SERIAL_NUM  TYPE_MODEL
hmc01  322480C     7042-CR8
$

The LPAR tool is now ready for use. No complex configuration is necessary. Basically: download, install, get started!