A Hardware Management Console, or HMC for short, is used to manage and configure IBM Power Servers. A Hardware Management Console can manage several IBM Power Servers. To ensure redundancy, each IBM Power Server can be managed by up to two HMCs. If one HMC fails, the servers can still be administered via the second HMC.

The primary functions of an HMC include the following:

• • Creating and managing LPARs
  • Provision console sessions for LPARs
  • Managing Managed Systems
  • Monitoring of managed systems and LPARs
  • Call home support