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Overview of the VMADMIN Command


Note: Use of this facility requires an unmodified z/VM system and was provided primarily as a migration tool for Virtual Image Facility (VIF) customers.


  July 26, 2005
The System Administration Facility tools that were added in z/VM V4.2 to help ease migration from the IBM S/390(R) Virtual Image Facility(TM) to z/VM V4.2 are not included with z/VM V5.2. Some of the same functionality may be obtained through the z/VM Systems Management APIs, first introduced in z/VM V4.4.

The heart of the System Administration Facility is the VMADMIN command interface. This command interface is initialized by issuing the VMADMCTL START command after you have installed VM. Using this interface requires an unmodified z/VM system. Modifications include changes such as device definitions, system configuration, and user directory statements, or any other changes made after installing your z/VM system. For more information about installing z/VM, refer to the publication:

Note:
IBM intends to withdraw the System Administration Facility from a future release of z/VM. Customers using the System Administration Facility to create and manage Linux server images as guests of z/VM should start using other systems management facilities of z/VM, write a client application using the Systems Management APIs introduced in z/VM V4.4, or acquire a system management application from an IBM solution provider.

Documentation is available in the System Administration Facility publication, SC24-6034, but this publication will not be included in the z/VM V5.1 library.

All statements regarding IBM's plans, directions, and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice.

The VMADMIN Client Interfaces

The System Administration Facility allows you to manage your system using one of two client interfaces: a CMS client or a Linux client. This client interface establishes who is authorized to perform system administration functions and allows you to issue commands using that client. If commands arrive at the System Administration Server Machine from sources other than the authorized client, they will be rejected. Choose your client interface to match the environment where you feel most comfortable (CMS or Linux).

VMADMIN Commands

The VMADMIN commands allow you to manage your system paging space, create new Linux images, maintain existing images, manage your Linux network and manage the VMADMIN server. The general syntax of the VMADMIN command is:

VMADMIN <ipaddress> operand function <option>

Complete details of the commands can be found in z/VM System Administration Facility.

The following is a summary of VMADMIN operands and functions:

Operand Function Description
Help   Displays a list of valid commands or information about a particular VMADMIN operand
IMAGE CREATE Defines a new image
DELETE Removes a Linux image
NETWORK Adds or deletes network devices
SET Changes the storage size, the number of processors, the boot device, or password
START Activates and boots a Linux image
STOP Terminates a Linux image
STOPALL Terminates all the Linux images on the system
PARTITION COPY Adds a partition and initializes its contents from another partition
CREATE Adds a partition
DELETE Removes a partition
INITIALIZE Initializes a partition for use
SHARE Allows one Linux image read-only access to the partition of another Linux image
SWAP Interchanges the device numbers of two partitions
QUERY ACTIVE Reports which Linux images are running
ALL Invokes all functions of the Query command
BOOT Reports when the VMADMIN server was booted
CLIENTIPADDRESS Displays the client IP address
CONFIGURATION Displays the current configuration settings
ERRORS Indicates whether there are hardware errors to report
IMAGE Displays the configuration of a Linux image
LEVEL Reports the level of the VMADMIN server
NETWORK Displays the network configuration
PAGING Displays the paging space in use and the effective amount of server paging space available
PARTITIONS Displays DASD utilization information
PERFORMANCE Displays the current performance levels of the system
SHARED Displays the names of the images that share partitions
VOLUMES Displays the image and paging DASD volume's volume ID and device number
SERVER CLIENTIPADDRESS Sets the IP address for the Linux client
COLLECT Gathers problem determination information
ECHO Verifies connectivity with the VMADMIN server
ERRORS Creates a report of hardware errors
EXPORT Creates a backup of the system configuration
IMPORT Restores a backup of the system configuration
INSTALL Replaces the Linux installation configuration file and the files it references
NETWORK Adds, changes or deletes server or internal network connections or the server gateway
RESTART Restarts the VMADMIN server
SHUTDOWN Shuts down the VMADMIN server
VERIFY Performs consistency checks of the System Administration Facility environment
VOLUME Adds or deletes paging or image DASD volumes, reports utilization or initializes a new volume
More Details?
Complete details about the VMADMIN command options will be in z/VM System Administration Facility manual:
for z/VM V4.4 PDF