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Data Infrastructure Insights

Configuring the IBM PowerVM data collector

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The IBM PowerVM (SSH) data collector is used to collect information about virtual partitions running on IBM POWER hardware instances managed by a hardware management console (HMC).

Terminology

Data Infrastructure Insights acquires inventory information from the virtual partitions running on IBM POWER hardware instances. For each asset type acquired, the most common terminology used for the asset is shown. When viewing or troubleshooting this data collector, keep the following terminology in mind:

Vendor/Model Term Data Infrastructure Insights Term

hdisk

Virtual Disk

Managed System

Host

LPAR, VIO Server

Virtual Machine

Volume Group

Data Store

Physical Volume

LUN

Note: These are common terminology mappings only and might not represent every case for this data collector.

Requirements

The following requirements must be met to configure and use this data collector:

  • IP address of the Hardware Management Console (HMC)

  • User name and password that provide access to Hardware Management Console (HMC) through SSH

  • Port requirement SSH-22

  • View permission on all management systems and logical partition security domains

    The user must also have View permission on HMC configurations and the ability to collect VPD information for the HMC console security grouping. The user must also be allowed Virtual IO Server Command access under the Logical Partition security grouping. It is a best practice to start from a role of an operator and then remove all roles. Read-only users on the HMC do not have privileges to run proxied commands on AIX hosts.

  • IBM best practice is to have the devices monitored by two or more HMCs. Be aware that this may cause OnCommand Insight to report duplicated devices, therefore it is highly recommended to add redundant devices to the "Exclude Devices" list in the Advanced Configuration for this data collector.

Configuration

Field Description

Hardware Management Console (HMC) IP Address

IP address or fully-qualified domain name of the PowerVM Hardware Management Console

HMC User

User name for the Hardware Management Console

Password

Password used for the Hardware Management Console

Advanced configuration

Field Description

Inventory Poll Interval (min)

Interval between inventory polls. The default is 20 minutes.

SSH Port

Port used for SSH to the PowerVM

Password

Password used for the Hardware Management Console

Number of Retries

Number of inventory retry attempts

Exclude Devices

Comma-separated list of device IDs or display names to exclude

Troubleshooting

Additional information on this Data Collector may be found from the Support page or in the Data Collector Support Matrix.