We are using Partion Load Manager with our p595 servers and AIX 5.3. There
is a problem with PLM in that if you have more than 10 LPARs in a single PLM
daemon then you get communication errors with the HMC. APAR IY92096 status
that you need to
"Run multiple plm sessions with policy files containing less managed lpars
in each session."

I assume that multiple plm sessions means multiple daemons. However I have
not found any documentation about how to configure multiple sessions. For
example do I need to distribute the CPUs and memory between each session or
should each session include the installed CPU and memory capacity.

Any ideas on what we should do here? That APAR has not been fixed yet.
Also we are still on the 1.1.0.1 level of PLM, with plans to upgrade to
1.1.0.2

Thanks

On Wed, 31 Oct 2007 09:19:01 -0400, Roger Tango wrote:

> We are using Partion Load Manager with our p595 servers and AIX 5.3.
> There is a problem with PLM in that if you have more than 10 LPARs in a
> single PLM daemon then you get communication errors with the HMC. APAR
> IY92096 status that you need to
> "Run multiple plm sessions with policy files containing less managed lpars
> in each session."
>
> I assume that multiple plm sessions means multiple daemons. However I
> have not found any documentation about how to configure multiple sessions.
> For example do I need to distribute the CPUs and memory between each
> session or should each session include the installed CPU and memory
> capacity.
>
> Any ideas on what we should do here? That APAR has not been fixed yet.
> Also we are still on the 1.1.0.1 level of PLM, with plans to upgrade to
> 1.1.0.2
>
> Thanks

You should be able to run as many PLM daemons as you want as long as you
point them to different policy files and log files... I probably wouldn't
make all resources visible to any single PLM daemon in that case. I'd
give each one a pool. I haven't run into a case where the PLM pool was
exhausted before physical memory, but I hope that PLM is smart enough not
to go past its configured boundaries...

I have heard some rumors that IBM is going to ditch PLM in the future, so
you might want to be prepared...

-Chris

Roger Tango schrieb:
> We are using Partion Load Manager with our p595 servers and AIX 5.3. There
> is a problem with PLM in that if you have more than 10 LPARs in a single PLM
> daemon then you get communication errors with the HMC. APAR IY92096 status
> that you need to
> "Run multiple plm sessions with policy files containing less managed lpars
> in each session."
>
> I assume that multiple plm sessions means multiple daemons. However I have
> not found any documentation about how to configure multiple sessions. For
> example do I need to distribute the CPUs and memory between each session or
> should each session include the installed CPU and memory capacity.
>
> Any ideas on what we should do here? That APAR has not been fixed yet.
> Also we are still on the 1.1.0.1 level of PLM, with plans to upgrade to
> 1.1.0.2
>
> Thanks
>
>
Hack the HMC (IBM support may provide you this 24 hour
password) and fix the sshd.config. The max number of
concurrent logins in startup is 10 in the ssh default
config. I'm not sure about the name of the config option
(no access to a system with ssh installed right now), but
you'll find it, I'm sure.
PLM now executes commands on the HMC using ssh and this
is done in parallel.... sooner or later :-(

Ok, google'ed and found a man page:
MaxStartups
Specifies the maximum number of concurrent unauthenticated con-
nections to the sshd daemon. Additional connections will be
dropped until authentication succeeds or the LoginGraceTime
expires for a connection. The default is 10.

"Christopher Petersen" <cpetersen@crystallized-software.com> wrote in
message newsan.2007.11.01.00.20.58.239098@crystallized-software.com...
> On Wed, 31 Oct 2007 09:19:01 -0400, Roger Tango wrote:
>
>> We are using Partion Load Manager with our p595 servers and AIX 5.3.
>> There is a problem with PLM in that if you have more than 10 LPARs in a
>> single PLM daemon then you get communication errors with the HMC. APAR
>> IY92096 status that you need to
>> "Run multiple plm sessions with policy files containing less managed
>> lpars
>> in each session."
>>
>> I assume that multiple plm sessions means multiple daemons. However I
>> have not found any documentation about how to configure multiple
>> sessions.
>> For example do I need to distribute the CPUs and memory between each
>> session or should each session include the installed CPU and memory
>> capacity.
>>
>> Any ideas on what we should do here? That APAR has not been fixed yet.
>> Also we are still on the 1.1.0.1 level of PLM, with plans to upgrade to
>> 1.1.0.2
>>
>> Thanks
>
> You should be able to run as many PLM daemons as you want as long as you
> point them to different policy files and log files... I probably wouldn't
> make all resources visible to any single PLM daemon in that case. I'd
> give each one a pool. I haven't run into a case where the PLM pool was
> exhausted before physical memory, but I hope that PLM is smart enough not
> to go past its configured boundaries...
>
> I have heard some rumors that IBM is going to ditch PLM in the future, so
> you might want to be prepared...
>
> -Chris

Thanks, that might explain the lack of support! I understand that Power 6
Hypervisor supports multiple resource pools, which would allow us to manage
our software licenses, which is one of the main reasons we are using PLM.

"Thomas Braunbeck" <Thomas.Braunbeck@orange.fr> wrote in message
news:47298618$0$27371$ba4acef3@news.orange.fr...
> Roger Tango schrieb:
>> We are using Partion Load Manager with our p595 servers and AIX 5.3.
>> There is a problem with PLM in that if you have more than 10 LPARs in a
>> single PLM daemon then you get communication errors with the HMC. APAR
>> IY92096 status that you need to
>> "Run multiple plm sessions with policy files containing less managed
>> lpars in each session."
>>
>> I assume that multiple plm sessions means multiple daemons. However I
>> have not found any documentation about how to configure multiple
>> sessions. For example do I need to distribute the CPUs and memory
>> between each session or should each session include the installed CPU and
>> memory capacity.
>>
>> Any ideas on what we should do here? That APAR has not been fixed yet.
>> Also we are still on the 1.1.0.1 level of PLM, with plans to upgrade to
>> 1.1.0.2
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>>
> Hack the HMC (IBM support may provide you this 24 hour
> password) and fix the sshd.config. The max number of
> concurrent logins in startup is 10 in the ssh default
> config. I'm not sure about the name of the config option
> (no access to a system with ssh installed right now), but
> you'll find it, I'm sure.
> PLM now executes commands on the HMC using ssh and this
> is done in parallel.... sooner or later :-(
>
> Ok, google'ed and found a man page:
> MaxStartups
> Specifies the maximum number of concurrent unauthenticated con-
> nections to the sshd daemon. Additional connections will be
> dropped until authentication succeeds or the LoginGraceTime
> expires for a connection. The default is 10.

Thanks, I'll give that a try. Wonder why they didn't put that in the APAR.