Installing IBM i

While working on part 2 of my public infrastructure project, I’ve been trying to get a license for my IBM S822 to allow me to run more than two LPARs. I would like to be able to run individual LPARs for workload isolation and also to get the full capacity out of my hardware. I have been in contact with Midland Information Systems, an IBM business partner offering solutions for various IBM products. During the process, I was tasked with this:

Hey Bryant, 

Just heard back actually. Will now need the configuration of the system. 

Are you able to print to PDF a rack configuration from the machine and send it to me please?

How to Print the System Configuration List:
1. On the AS/400 Main menu command line type:
STRSST.
Press the Enter key.
2. On the STRSST display, select Start a service tool option. Press the Enter key.
3. On the Start a Service Tool display, select Hardware service manager. Press the Enter key.
4. From the Hardware Service Manager display, press F6 (print configuration).
5. To return to the AS/400 Main menu, Press F3 (Exit) twice and then press the Enter key.
6. Keep the printed list - the service representative will need it
7. Release print job.

Obviously, this requires an IBM i partition to be installed. This post is going to go through the process I took installing IBM i.

Prerequisites #

My method involved installing IBM i in a logical partition. You could install it on a server in standalone mode, but since I want to run other LPARs on my S822 server I went with installing it in a logical partition. You will need an HMC/vHMC and VIOS partition to do this. I can’t explain the installation of those in detail in this blog post as it would take too long. But just know that you’ll need an HMC for managing the server and a VIOS for handling I/O for the LPARs.

You will also need IBM i install media. You do not strictly need a license for temporary installs of IBM i. IBM provides an article detailing how you you obtain them. You’ll need to create an IBMid so you can access Entitled Systems Support (ESS) to download the evaluation images. I’ll be using IBM i V7R4 since it’s the latest version that my S822 supports. You can choose to download the files through ESS with IBM’s Download Director (recommended for bulk downloads, requires an application such as OpenWebStart or IcedTea-Web since it uses .jnlp files) or with HTTP (recommended for downloading individual files).

For a basic install, you’ll need the following files:

• Licensed internal code (usually begins with I_BASE)
• B_GROUP files, which contain the OS files and libraries

The files will either appear in .iso or .udf format. This does not matter.

By the way, in case you feel I’m explaining too poorly or need more detail, IBM provides detailed guides here:

• Web version
• PDF version

Just don’t forget to change the guide versions to the version of IBM i that you’ll be installing.

Preparation #

Before we can begin to install, you’ll need to do three things:

• Create a virtual media library on the VIOS, from the HMC
• Upload the OS files to the VIOS (e.g. through SCP)
• Import the OS files into the virtual media library

To create the virtual media library, just navigate to the VIOS partition you want to create it on. Then, you can click on the virtual media library tab and create one:

When prompted to create one, choose the volume group to create it on and its size:

Now, the volume group should be created. You can begin by uploading the needed OS files to your VIOS like this:

scp <filename> padmin@<vios_hostname>:/home/padmin/

This will upload the file to the home directory of your VIOS user. When completed, you’ll be able to import the file into the virtual media library by clicking the add button:

Where Media name is the name of the file as it should appear in the virtual media library, and Optical media file name is the full path of the location of the media file (e.g. /home/padmin/<filename>).

After clicking create, you can upload more files as needed to the VIOS. During this workflow, I recommend deleting the source files from the home directory of padmin to create room for subsequent uploads and to prevent filling up the VIOS filesystem.

With the appropriate files uploaded, you can proceed with creating the IBM i partition. On the HMC, navigate to the system you want to create the partition and select create partition(s) under system actions. Set the name and resource allocations you want for the partition, then set the partition type to IBM i and click OK.

After creating the partition, you can proceed with assigning virtual networks, storage, etc. to the partition. For my usecase, I’ll just create a logical volume for the partition boot disk.

Note: IBM i expects 520 byte disks. If you’re assigning a physical volume/installing without an HMC, make sure to use 520 byte disks. If you’re using a VIOS, you can disregard this. It will handle the translation from 520 byte to whatever backend disks you’re using (e.g. 512, 528).

Now you can create a virtual optical device for the LPAR and load the Licensed Internal Code (LIC) ISO to it. But wait! Don’t start the partition yet!. IBM i has some specific quirks due to its age. You’ll need to navigate to partition properties and verify IPL source is set to D. That tells the partition to look at the CDROM instead of booting from disk (which would be IPL source A). Also make sure key lock position is set to Manual, not Normal. This tells the partition that you want to interact with it instead of booting hands-free. Also, under Advanced Settings, click on Tagged I/O Settings and set the Alternate Restart Device to the CDROM vSCSI device so that the partition knows where to boot from.

Connecting to the LPAR #

Unlike an AIX/Linux partition, IBM i doesn’t just use a standard terminal device to view the console. IBM i exclusively uses the 5250 protocol to connect to it (like how IBM Z/OS uses the 3270 protocol). As such, you’ll need a way to access the console output. If you’re using a console connected to the HMC (or VNC if using vHMC), you can activate the partition like normal and then click on Console in the partitions menu and open a 5250 console to it. However, this isn’t possible if you’re accessing the HMC from a browser. In this case, I recommend using IBM i Access Client Solutions. If you’re not interested, you can skip to the next section.

IBM i Access Client Solutions is IBM’s native tool for connecting to IBM i partitions. One of its killer features is that it supports connecting directly to the HMC, which runs a 5250 console internally to allow you to view IBM i partition consoles. You can read IBM’s detailed guide here for getting it set up. If you’re on macOS/Linux, you will also need to install UnixODBC in addition to Java in order to use the application correctly.

After everything’s been installed, you’ll need to open ACS, click on System Configurations under Management, and click New to add a new “system”. If you were connecting to an existing IBM i server, with TCP/IP and whatnot already configured, you could add it directly under General. But since we’re using the HMC to view the console of the IBM i partition, click on Console instead, select HMC 5250 Console, and enter the hostname/IP address of the HMC (you can still add a short name and description for the HMC under General so that the HMC can be found in System Configurations). I recommend keeping Use SSL for connection enabled since the HMC already comes with existing SSL certificates for the web interface. Also make sure that your firewall rules, either between your computer and the HMC, or on the HMC directly, allow ports 2300/2301 over HTTP/HTTPS for console access as written here.

After you’ve clicked Save/New, you can select 5250 Console under Console to test the connection. If you’ve done everything correctly, you should see a screen like this:

For US English, you can type 21. Then you can login with your regular HMC credentials, select the managed system, and choose the IBM i partition you want to connect to.

LIC Installation #

The partition should be booted, and you should be greeted with this screen:

You can keep the 2924 option set on the next two screens if you want to continue using US English. You’ll then be greeted with this screen, to which you can just select 1.

The rest of the install should be pretty self-explanatory; for the next screen, you can select 2 to Install Licensed Internal Code and Initialize system since this a new install. Then hit F10 to start.

Tip: If your keyboard doesn’t have function keys, you can click on Keypad under View to enable the on-screen function keys.

IBM’s documentation states that the “Disk Configuration Attention Report” display could appear during the install:

                     Disk Configuration Attention Report

Type option, press Enter.
   5=Display Detailed Report

Press F10 to accept all the following problems and continue.
The system will attempt to correct them.

Opt Problem
 _ xxxxxxxx xxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxx xx xxxxx xxxxxxxx
 _ xxxxx_xx_xxxxx xxxxxx_ xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx________
 _ __________________________________________________________
 _ __________________________________________________________
 _ __________________________________________________________
 _ __________________________________________________________
 _ __________________________________________________________
 _ __________________________________________________________
 _ __________________________________________________________
 _ __________________________________________________________
                                                                    More...
F3=Exit F10=Accept the problems and continue F12=Cancel

Sure enough, it pops up. In my case, since I’m installing IBM i in an LPAR, it’s letting me know that only one disk was found. Usually this doesn’t matter since the backend disk(s) for the LPAR would be mirrored/in an array, but it doesn’t hurt to be reminded. I’ll just hit F10 here to continue. After that, this screen should pop up:

This confirms that the LIC has been installed. At this point, you can power off the partition, and change the IPL Source back to A (don’t change the key lock position back to manual yet)!

OS Installation (Part 1) #

You can now start the partition back up again until you get back to the same menu. Load the first OS installation disk in the CDROM (B_GROUP), type 2 to Install the operating system, and hit enter. When prompted for the installation device type, type 2 for CDROM and hit enter again. Follow the on screen prompts until you reach the Install the Operating System screen, where you can type 1 and hit enter to start the actual OS install.

During the install, another screen will pop up:

                              Sign On
                                        System. . . . : XXX
                                        Subsystem . . : XXXXX
                                        Display . . . : XXXXXXXX

        User. . . . . . . . . . . . . . QSECOFR
        Program/procedure . . . . . . . ________
        Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ________
        Current library . . . . . . . . ________

This is just asking you to sign in as a user as the next menu will ask you to configure the system date and time. For the user, you can type QSECOFR (which you can think of as the root user for IBM i). On the next screen, enter the current date and time and hit enter. You should then return back to the install.

After another couple of minutes, you should be prompted to sign in again. This time it requires a password. You can use the same QSECOFR for the user and QSECOFR again for the password. It’ll ask you to change the password, where you can type in a new password. You’ll then be directed to this screen:

You can type 5 to view each software agreement, F15 to accept, and when done, hit enter. Once you’ve accepted all the agreements you should finally be dropped into the IBM i main menu:

Success! Almost. Unfortunately, the OS packages aren’t completely installed yet. Although IBM says this in their installation guide:

If you are using physical media, load the first volume of installation media that contains the operating system.
Throughout these procedures, load the next volume when prompted by the system. When you are installing from optical
media, wait until the In Use indicator goes out before you continue. Also ensure that you have removed other media
from devices that are not involved in the upgrade.

I have not found this to be the case during the install. Typically the install proceeds just fine with the first B_GROUP disk without asking for the rest. This results in an unfinished installation state like this:

If you find this to be the case for your install, check the next section.

OS Installation (Part 2) #

To finish installing the base system, I’ll follow IBM’s documentation here:

Do the following to put the system in a restricted state and filter the messages that appear.
a. Type CHGMSGQ QSYSOPR *BREAK SEV(60) and press Enter.
b. A message display could appear. Press Enter.
c. Type ENDSBS *ALL *IMMED and press Enter.
d. When the following message appears, press Enter to continue:
ENDSBS SBS(*ALL) command being processed
e. The message System ended to restricted condition appears. Press Enter to continue.
f. Type CHGMSGQ QSYSOPR SEV(95) and press Enter.
g. A message display could appear. Press Enter.

This will halt all subsystems other than those explicity necessary to allow me to install new OS libraries or reinstall broken ones (such as QGPL and QUSRSYS).

On Linux or Unix, you’d typically use a package manager to update from a network repository. On IBM i, it’s a little more involved. By default, you install/upgrade core system packages through mounting ISOs and installing from a menu. The menu can be accessed by typing GO LICPGM to work with programs:

LICPGM              Work with Licensed Programs
                                                  System: XXXX
Select one of the following:

  Manual Install
    1. Install all

  Preparation
    5. Prepare for install

  Licensed Programs
    10. Display installed licensed programs
    11. Install licensed programs
    12. Delete licensed programs
    13. Save licensed programs

Again, following IBM’s documentation, I’ll do the following:

On the Work with Licensed Programs display, either type 1 (Install all) or type 11 (Install
licensed programs). Read the following note to help you decide.
Note: If you want to install all licensed programs that are on the distribution media, use Manual
Install option 1, Install all. This will save time for the installation. If you want most of the
licensed programs on the media, then Manual Install option 1 is also the preferred choice. You will
have to delete the extra unwanted licensed programs. The Manual Install display appears after
selecting Manual Install option 1.
Type the following on this display:
• Install option: 2 (2=all products)
• Installation device: OPT01
• Replace if current: N
• Nonaccepted agreement: 2 (2=Display software agreement)
• Automatic IPL: N
In this example, OPT01 is used for the installation device. If you use a different naming convention,
type the name that you have assigned to the installation device.

Now the install should begin. At some point, the following screen will pop up:

                           Display Messages
                                                 System: XXXX
Queue . . . . . : QSYSOPR              Program . . . . : *DSPMSG
  Library . . . : QSYS                   Library . . . :
Severity . . . . : 95                  Delivery . . . : *BREAK

Type reply (if required), press Enter.
  Load the next volume in optical device OPT01 (X G)
    Reply . . . . G

This means that the first media volume has been read from and it’s time to load the next (B_GROUP). I’ll unload the first ISO, then load the next and type G to continue with the install. I’ll continue to do this for the rest of my B_GROUP ISOs as the menu pops up until I reach the last ISO, where when the menu pops up again I’ll just type X to let the installer know I’m done with loading media volumes. Fast forward a couple of hours and my system is now fully installed:

Since everything looks good, I can now shut down the partition and switch the key lock position back to normal. I hope this guide helped illustrate what it’s like to install IBM i.