What is Service Processor And How To Access It

What is Service Processor
The Service Processor provides the ability to view and change the power-on settings of running system. Service Processor also monitors the operating system to confirm that its running or hanged.

The Service Processor has a permanent firmware boot side also called A side and a temporary firmware boot side or known as B side. The temporary or B side is used to test the new levels of firmware. If all goes well then the B side firmware is copied back to A side. Even if the system is in power standby mode, the Service Processor keeps on running and monitoring the system for any errors. It also ensures the connection to the HMC for manageability purposes.

How To Access Service Processor
The interface to Service Processor is called Advanced System Management Interface(ASMI). All general and administrative tasks are done through the ASMI. The tasks are listed as :

1. Setting up the Service Processor.
2. Reading Service Processor error logs.
3. Reading vital product data from Service Processor.
4. Controlling the system power.

How To Access ASMI
The ASMI can be accessed via following three methods:

1. Web Browser.
2. ASCII console.
3. HMC.

How To Access ASMI Through Web Browser
The client system can run any web browser to provide access to ASMI. The SSL(Secure Socket Layer) is used with http to access the interface through browser. It’s used as https://. Internet explorer, Netscape, Opera can be used to access ASMI through https.

Starting from Initial Program Load(IPL) through full run time, the ASMI is accessible through web browser. Only relevant menus will be shown while accessing in a particular phase like IPL.

How To Access ASMI Through ASCII Console
This is a serial port on the server which uses a terminal. This provides access to ASMI.

How To Access ASMI Through HMC Interface
HMC also provides access to ASMI. Here is the short path for accessing ASMI through HMC:

1. Expand managed system for which you want to access ASMI.
2. Expand the Service Applications menu and click on “Service Focal Point“.
3. In content area click on “Service Utilities“.
4. Select the managed system from the Service Utilities.
5. There you see “Launch ASM Menu“. You can click on this.

IBM documentation (Partitioning Implementations for IBM e-server p5 Servers: SG24-7039-02), was consulted to write this article. Thanks to all of their endeavors.