There are two options for connecting managed systems to an HMC:

1. 1. The managed system obtains an IP address as a DHCP client from the HMC via a private network. The HMC acts as a DHCP server in this network and automatically detects the managed system. (This is the default setting of a managed system.)
   2. The managed system is manually assigned a static IP address and is manually connected to the HMC. (This requires configuration via ASMI.)

In both cases, a user account and a password are required for the HMC to access the managed system. This information must be provided once when establishing the connection. For FSP systems (managed systems up to and including POWER9) the ASMI HMC access user is used and only the password needs to be specified. For eBMC systems (managed systems from POWER10 on) a BMC user account and associated password must be specified.

If a managed system is connected to two HMCs, which is the typical case in practice for redundancy reasons, the connection must be set up on both HMCs. The HMCs should have the same (or at least a compatible) version level.