Introduction to PowerVM Novalink Introduction and Cheat Sheet

Since the introduction of PowerVM Novalink  I have been constantly asked for details on what Novalink is and how to perform basic tasks via Novalink.  There is extensive documentation around Novalink on IBM’s Infocenter however I thought I’d give a brief breakdown of some of the main points around Novalink are the following:

• Novalink is NOT a replacement for the HMC
  • HMC’s are still required for tasks such as microcode updates as well as call home
• Novalink is an Openstack controller to use in conjuction with Openstack environments
  • i.e. PowerVC
• Novalink allows RMC connections via the hypervisor to each LPAR on the system
  • Utilizes a management switch (MGMTSWITCH) on VLAN 4094
  • VSwitch should be configured as a Vepa mode switch to ensure communications can only be established between LPARs and the Novalink server (not in between LPARs)
  • Novalink adapter on MGMTSWITCH is configured as trunk for the vlan
• Novalink is NOT an appliance,  it is composed of a set of Linux packages that can be installed on a Ubuntu ppc64le LPAR or RedHat  LPAR.
• No WebUI is available for Novalink
• Novalink can only perform operations on the frame it is located on.

To help people getting started with Novalink, I have listed a bunch of commands commonly used with Novalink for LPAR management. This is only a small subset of commands. Once you login to Novalink, you can see the rest of the commands by running ‘pvmctl help’ as long as you are a member of the pvm_admin group, only members of the pvm_admin group can run commands on a Novalink host. Again, this is a extremely small subset of commands. You can also see additional help for all the commands by checking the relevant help page for the command, i.e. pvmctl lpar help list will show you the help for the pvmctl lpar list command.

Informational Commands

LPAR Power On/Off and console

VIOS Power On/Off and console

Create/Update/Delete commands (Dynamic & Offline)

Note: The above commands can also be used to update CPU or Memory on an lpar while the LPAR is offline. Just like on an HMC managed system, the same limitations apply to DLPAR, updating the min/max values for cpu or memory will require the LPAR to be shutdown however most other commands can be performed dynamically provided you have an active RMC connection. Additional fields like PartitionMemoryConfiguration.max, PartitionMemoryConfiguration.min can also be specified in the same command however min/max can only be updated while the LPAR is offline.