Is There a Problem Here? IBM Redpaper: How to Migrate from the SDMC to the HMC

Update 4-28-12: IBM has withdrawn the SDMC from marketing as of April 24, 2012 in favor of enhancing the HMC. Details can be found here.

Last year, IBM was encouraging people to move to the new Systems Directory Management Console (SDMC) from the Hardware Management Console (HMC) for Power Systems management. This was because they were starting to sunset the HMC in favor of the SDMC. As a result, we saw things like:

• IBM Redbook: Systems Director Management Console: Introduction and Overview
• IBM Replaces the HMC with the New Systems Director Management Console (IT Jungle)
• Some Insight into the HMC to SDMC Transition (IT Jungle)

And so and so forth. It looked as if the migration to the SDMC was on in full force.

Then earlier this year, IBM gave the 7042-CR6 HMC a stay of execution and extended the life of the HMC until December 31, 2012. This showed that the HMC was harder to kill than IBM thought or that maybe IBM is taking its time in forcing the migration to SDMC.

And now on Tuesday, April 24th, IBM released a new redpaper called Guide to Hardware Management Console (HMC) Integration, which provides this very interesting introduction:

This IBM® Redpaper™ publication describes how to migrate from the Systems Director Management Console (SDMC) 7042-CR6 hardware appliance to the Hardware Management Console (HMC). During the migration of SDMC to HMC, you perform a standard, from-scratch
HMC installation.

But the redpaper doesn’t specify why you’d want to remigrate from the SDMC to the HMC. It seems odd that IBM would put out a redpaper discussing how to go back to the HMC once you’ve loaded SDMC onto the 7402-CR6. After all, if the SDMC is the strategic direction for Power systems management, why would IBM be providing instructions to reconfigure it as an HMC? This is the opposite of sunsetting the HMC.

I did a quick Interner search for info on this tonight and didn’t find any references to pulling the SDMC for Power systems management.

So does anyone know if there’s something wrong with using the SDMC on Power systems? Are they still on track to sunset the HMC or is there some issue that is causing people to have problems with the SDMC?

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