Provisioning compute nodes

Before IBM® Flex System Manager management software can manage a compute node, the compute node must be provisioned. The information in this section describes how to use the management software to modify firmware and hardware configuration settings for X-Architecture compute nodes, and how to deploy operating systems to X-Architecture and IBM Power Systems™ compute nodes.

Before you begin

Note: Some management software functionality, such as Configuration Patterns and the Deploy compute node images task, is limited to X-Architecture compute nodes.

For information about updating firmware on a Power Systems compute node, see Updating firmware and software. For more information about installing an operating system on a Power Systems compute node, see "Installing the operating system" in the documentation for that compute node.

About this task

Provisioning a compute node means updating the firmware, installing the operating system, and updating device drivers. IBM provides tools to help with the provisioning process.

In addition to the tools and methods listed here, see the documentation for your compute node for other methods that apply to provisioning a single compute node.