© Copyright IBM Corp. 2004. All rights reserved. 233
Draft Document for Review April 7, 2004 6:15 pm 6947axA.fm
Appendix A. Hardware Management Console

(HMC)

Introduction

In this appendix we discuss the z990 Hardware Management Console, and provide you with
some configuration guidelines.
The HMC is a PC/ISA bus PC running OS/2®, Communications Server for OS/2, a remote
control systems management product, and the Hardware Management Console Application
(HMCA). It also contains configuration information about its own configuration and about the
Support Element (SE) defined to it.
The HMC is attached to the SE either by a local area network (LAN) through the Multistation
Access Unit (MAU) or by an Ethernet LAN. The HMC resides external to the system frame.
The HMC can also control and monitor status for multiple Central Processor Complexes
(CPCs) configured to it, providing a single point of control and a single system image. One
HMC can control 100 SEs, and one SE can be controlled by 32 HMCs.
The physical location of some HMC hardware features (standard or optional) are dictated by
the specific PC. Some features may be mutually exclusive with other features, depending on
the PC model.
The HMC user interface is designed to provide the functions you need to operate, monitor,
and maintain your processor. Various elements of the processor hardware are represented as
objects by the HMC application. Through this application, you can directly manipulate the
CPC objects that are defined to the HMC and be aware of changes to hardware status as
they are detected.
The Hardware Management Console and Support Elements provide the following:
򐂰A Hardware Management Console Application object-oriented interface
򐂰Customizable groups of hardware objects
򐂰A customizable Hardware Management Console
򐂰Application settings
A