Accessing VIOS console via HMC console

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In case of emergency (unexpected boot after maintenance) we should always be able to connect to VIOS via HMC via console. This can help in recovering from some boot issues. To do the same use:

  1. SSH to vHMC via use (eg hscroot)
  2. Run below command
    vtmenu
  3. Select the appropriate power server for which we want to connect to VIOS
  4. Select the VIOS to which we want to connect
  5. Login with appropriate user (padmin / root etc.)
    In case there is no login prompt then it makes sense to first resolve the issue related to vtmenu access to VIOS before proceeding further.
  6. Once work is completed we can logout using sequence tilde(~) followed by dot(.)


Kill existing vtmenu session

We cannot have two vtmenu sessions open for same LPAR. Thus, if we want to kill and older vtmenu session, so that we can create a new one use:

rmvterm –m <msys> –p <lpar>

For example:

rmvterm -m Server-9117-570-SN103FACD_B -p WBITVIO2 

Refer:


vtmenu access to VIOS not working possibly due to multiple IPS

In latest vHMC it is possible that vtmenu does not works if VIOS server has multiple IPs (See 'ifconfig -a' after doing ' r o'). In such cases removing only the secondary IP of VIOS without removing the bridge device via below steps might help in solving the problem.:

  1. Down the interface
    ifconfig en11 down detach
  2. Delete the virtual interface
    rmdev -Rdl en11
  3. Delete the mapping
    rmdev -Rdl et11
  4. Do not Delete the physical interface via
    rmdev -Rdl ent11
    Doing this may stop connectivity to LPARs that depend upon this particular bridge / physical interface. If we want to fix this we would have to connect these affected LPARS to the remaining (other working) bridge /interface.
  5. We should also validate /etc/hosts via
    cat /etc/hosts
    The file should not have mapping between removed IP and the hostname of the server. The mapping should only be there for the remaining working IP and hostname.


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