Are you one of those folks who hung on to their flip-phone until you were forced to move to a “smart phone” (i.e. a really small portable computer)? Well, I'm one of those people, too.
The IBM Hardware Management Console (HMC) is coming to a similar crossroads and we’re going to have to face it. Up until September 2014, the HMC had one interface for managing systems and it had been fairly consistent for a very long time. From release to release, tasks were done pretty much the same as before. For traditional IBM i environments with multiple partitions and normal logical resource movement, this environment has been solid.
With Service pack 1 of version V8R8.1, an Enhanced mode was added that you could use if you intentionally logged into it when getting into the HMC. This new mode provided a much different look and feel that was the beginning of better aligning the HMC to manage cloud solutions. Still, since this mode was not the default, it went widely unnoticed by many of us who primarily used the HMC to manage IBM i partitions.
On later releases, the Enhanced mode became the default and you must intentionally pick the Classic mode to continue in our old ways. I was largely unmoved by this change since everything I needed to do still worked in Classic mode.
With the advent of the latest HMC code (V8R8.7), our Classic mode safety net is gone, and we will be forced to use the Enhanced (only surviving) mode. It won’t be long before you have to adopt this new interface if your HMC is to stay current.
Good information about the difference between Classic and Enhanced mode and details of the Enhanced mode can be found at https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/POWER8/p8ha1/p8ha1_classicvsenhanced.htm.
If you haven’t already learned the Enhanced mode, the time to get started is now. If you have at least gotten your HMC to V8R8.1 service pack 1, I suggest logging into the HMC and selecting the Enhanced mode instead of Classic. Step through those functions you normally do on the HMC and get comfortable with where they are. I think you’ll be happy with how the new interface works and you might even like it better.
But I still miss my flip phone.
About the author
Paul Lesle is our Power Systems Technical Team Lead and has been involved in activities including evaluating specific client requirements and recommending solutions, evaluating current system performance, performing installation readiness reviews, and implementing IBM server solutions. He has taken the lead in designing a wide range of solutions for customers’ IT infrastructure needs.