Edit: Some links no longer work. Luckily COD activiation is much easier these days.
Originally posted October 29, 2013 on AIXchange
Hopefully you read Charlie Cler’s article in the September issue of IBM Systems Magazine about the various Capacity on Demand (CoD) options.
Here’s a CoD question I often get: How do you activate it?
The first step is to get the necessary activation codes from IBM — and yes, you’ll likely be getting multiple codes. Recently a customer I was working with got three codes: one to activate more memory, one to activate more processors and one to enable PowerVM Enterprise edition, VIO servers, micropartitioning, etc., on the newly activated processors.
IBM ships the codes on paper, so the hardest part of the whole exercise is making sure the 34 characters of the activation codes are correctly entered on your HMC. The document you receive from IBM displays the system type, the serial number, the Anchor card CCIN, the Anchor Card serial number and the Anchor card unique identifier. You’ll also see how many previously activated resources you had and how many you’re activating. This can be a nice sanity check to ensure that the order went through as expected.
I’ve had customers mistakenly believe they could activate resources that don’t yet exist in the machine. However, this isn’t magic; the hardware must first be installed. In many cases the needed resources are installed with new customer systems, but not immediately activated.
Once you have your activation code(s), go to your HMC, select the server you want to work on and then select the Capacity on Demand task. There’s a spot on this menu where you can view the history log — which displays all of the dates and times of the various resources you’ve activated — as well as a place to enter your new CoD code.
There are also places where you can view capacity settings for your resources — including, for example, inactive CoD memory, permanently activated memory, temporarily activated memory and installed memory.
The same menus are available for processors. You’ll also find options for Enterprise Enablement. Further down the screen is an area for PowerVM and Other Advanced Functions.
Many customers expect their environments to grow and can logically assume that they’ll eventually need new resources, but in these cases it can be difficult to pinpoint when the need will require action. CoD can be a great way to prepare for the unknown.
Note: We just finished up the IBM Power Systems Technical University at Enterprise2013 event. I attended tons of great sessions and met and talked with many IBM presenters as well as a number of readers of this blog. Incidentally, the 2014 Technical University will be at the Venetian in Las Vegas on Oct. 6-10, so add it to your calendar now and start making plans to attend. I hope to see you there.
Finally, a few highlights from Twitter. Follow @robmcnelly, and check out #ibmenterprise for tweets related to the conference.
RT @ElReg They’ve taken my storage hostage … now what?: How one user device nearly brought down the business. http://bit.ly/19Ac9jG
RT @cgibbo RT @IBMPowerSystems: #PowerSystems tip of the day: seastat search option http://ibm.co/16vH3pS
RT @chromeaix #powersystems #AIX IBM PowerHA SystemMirror rapid deploy cluster worksheets for IBM AIX http://ow.ly/2AXYeJ
RT @cgibbo RT @IBM_FLRT: Check out new #FLRT Lite https://www14.software.ibm.com/support/customercare/flrt/liteHome… Quick and easy recommendations at your fingertips!
RT @scalzi Old School (via @Reddit): http://i.imgur.com/g0Zgf6q.jpg