By now, you've perhaps gotten used to the Information Center, love it or hate it (see "You Love to Hate It: The iSeries Information Center," June 2006, article ID 20552 at SystemiNetwork.com and "What's New With IBM Information Center," September 2007, article ID 55535), and now that the Hardware Management Console (HMC) has a new face ("The New Look for HMC: Not Just Another Pretty Face" (July 2007, article ID 20943), we've made enough changes for one year, right? Well, the fact is, we have even more changes for you. And we are very interested in hearing from you once you've had a chance to check out the changes.

This article summarizes the documentation changes associated with Version 7 of the HMC, but more so, it summarizes the changes that are coming with new POWER6-based servers that IBM is rolling out starting this year. I provide some pointers about the documentation website and outline the basic documentation design. Finally, I highlight other changes, such as online education offerings and where you can find them.

I'm writing only about hardware documentation. Software documentation, such as documentation for i5/OS, remains in the Information Center. The pointers provided by Kris Henke and Kori Bevis in the previously mentioned articles apply. POWER5 and prior hardware documentation also remains in its current location in the Hardware Information Center.

So, What Is Changing and Why?

It's no secret that IBM has been merging hardware for some time now. The basic hardware for System i and System p platforms has more components that are the same than are different. At the same time, the hardware runs very different operating systems, and your feedback on the Hardware Information Center has indicated that it's annoying to search for information and have the resulting matches apply to the wrong system. Also, it's just too easy to take links that lead into topics that may be relevant to one platform but not the one you have. Even worse, it's aggravating to try to perform some tasks using the documentation, and to have links that lead to irrelevant places. Although IBM is working to improve that situation, as Kris and Kori have pointed out, another approach is being used for hardware documentation.

Starting with POWER6-based server platforms, the documentation will be just that — self-contained — and it will no longer reside in the Hardware Information Center. Each platform will have its own documentation that avoids, where possible, links outside a given information unit (usually a PDF file). At the same time, the documentation for each hardware platform, System i and System p, will still be similar. This lets IBM more efficiently document the hardware, which is the same, with some exceptions. Also, the HMC, as before, can simultaneously manage both System i and System p hardware, making the management tasks similar, if not identical. Very few HMC tasks apply to one platform but not the other.

The documentation for POWER6-based System i server platforms will be placed on the IBM Systems Support website (ibm.com/systems/support/i). Figure 1 shows a screen capture of this website.

The site has been updated to provide a navigation flow to the publications, and the System i domain search is also enhanced to help you find the documentation for the new hardware.

Starting with Version 7 of the HMC software, which is the current HMC release, the HMC no longer contains a copy of a Hardware Information Center for POWER6-based platforms, because that information no longer exists in an Information Center format. Instead, there is Information Center documenttion for your POWER5-based platforms only. The HMC does contain one HTML-based document, the HMC Operations Guide. This guide, along with all the POWER6 hardware documentation, is also available on the IBM Systems Support website.

Remember, the HMC is an appliance. Because you cannot install applications onto the HMC (including PDF readers) the HMC Operations Guide is provided in both PDF and HTML format. If you're accessing the HMC from a remote browser, you can launch the PDF version of the guide; however, the local HMC will display the equivalent HTML document.

The HMC Welcome page also contains links to the IBM Systems Support website, the Operations Guide, and education modules from the Welcome page. Figure 2 shows the HMC Welcome page. The documentation is listed under Additional Resources, and I've expanded the online information link to show the IBM System Support link.

Note: Two new HMC models were introduced this year, for which the documentation is also located on the IBM Systems Support site. If you simply upgrade your current HMC from Version 6 code to Version 7 code, you will need to use the new site for HMC operating system and user interface questions, but information about the hardware itself remains on the Hardware Information Center.

Hardware Documentation Organization

You might be familiar with the IBM Resource Link website at ibm.com/servers/resourcelink, which requires you to sign in with your IBM registration ID. This ID is the same one you use if you use Electronic Service Agent, and the same one that you enter when you register the HMC for call-home support.

Figure 3 shows the IBM Registration site as it appears on the referenced Resource Link page. When you access the IBM Systems Support site, unless you sign in, you will be able to access only a subset of the complete documentation set available for POWER6-based server platforms.

Within the IBM Systems Support website, the PDF files are arranged in categories to help you easily find the right document. The categories are as follows:

• Plan — mostly used by business partners and others during the planning and sales phase
• Install — for use by IBM personnel when installing systems and features, or by customers when the task is designated as customer-installable
• Use — for customer use for normal operations tasks
• Troubleshooting — for problem solving and support documentation

Figure 4 shows how the categories are placed on the IBM Systems Support web page. Please note that actual documentation titles are subject to change and should be viewed online.

Figure 5 highlights the right column from the screen shown in Figure 4. At 1, you can subscribe to the page, or to a document on the page, and be notified if the document changes.

At 2, you can sort the documentation by task, which is the default, but also by title, if the task set does not match your organization, for example. You can also sort the list by document ID or publication number, which might also be useful at times.

At 3, if your operations personnel's major or first language is not English, you can download the document for the supported language that you need.

At 4 is an important link back to the new IBM Systems Information Center that contains all other information you might need for your POWER5-based platforms as well as for your software.

Now that I've discussed the documentation organization on the IBM Systems Support Site web page, I'll back up a step and trace the path from the support site's home page to the documentation. Returning to Figure 1, notice that I've selected a System i model 570 (POWER6). By choosing the model you have, this link path should take you to the correct hardware documentation for your model, whether that model is POWER5 based or POWER6 based. A word of caution, however: Notice on Figure 1 that there are two versions of the System i model 570. Click the Technical Library (not the Information Center) link to access the hardware documentation. That link will take you to the documentation that is currently available. At the time of this writing, the web page contains the documentation that was made available at announcement — it will contain the complete list of documents at General Availablity.

Also, if you bookmark the new IBM Systems Information Center, you can follow the links for your hardware platform to arrive at the correct information. Now, let's look at a few pointers on the content.

Documentation Content

As I mentioned earlier, a major goal in using PDF and book format is self-containment. Another advantage is that the documents have numbers — such as order numbers — that denote which edition of the document is current. If you are using a previous edition, you might want to obtain the latest, or if you have not implemented a given level of HMC software or server firmware, you might want to use an earlier version of a given document. You can easily download the complete set of documents to your laptop or PC and print as many of them as you like. The documents are formatted for printing rather than optimized into smaller articles for web viewing.

The audience focus of the documentation is for either a customer or service provider. Customer information is contained in the Plan and Use categories. The Plan category also supports the business partner who is planning a new system for a client base. The Use category focuses on configuration, operation, and safety and legal information. Plan and Use information is available only on the IBM Systems Support website.

For systems set up by IBM, the installation documentation is still located in Worldwide Customized Installation Information (WCII). These procedures are used by the IBM Systems Service Representative (SSR) who sets up the system. Other installation information includes feature installation guides, and removal and replacement procedures.

Troubleshooting documentation is provided by the HMC in the form of reference codes that are linked to the documentation on the HMC itself. For systems that are not managed by an HMC, this documentation is extracted from the HMC and shipped with the product on media, and it's also available on the IBM Systems Support website. I'll highlight this topic shortly.

Figure 4 shows a sample list of documentation as it might be presented on the IBM Systems Support website. At the time of this writing, the final document list is not quite complete.

Typically, the documents are available at platform General Availability, except for the planning documentation, which is available at platform announcement. Remember that planning documentation consists of the PDF files (such as the Site Preparation and Physical Planning Guide) and educational materials, for example.

Troubleshooting and Reference Codes

IBM has hopefully (you be the judge, using the feedback links) provided better handling of reference code information. Both on the HMC and in the Hardware Information Center, reference code documentation improvement has been a recurring wish that we are beginning to address with the new documentation delivery forms. You can view reference codes from the HMC. First, for the HMC — refer back to Figure 2 — there are three paths to view reference code information. You can view the explanations and actions associated with the codes through the Systems Management node, via the Service Management node, or from the status bar at the lower-left corner of the HMC display. In all cases, there are links to the detail information for the reference code on the display. The detail information should explain both what the error or progress code indicates and what you should do, if anything.

Figure 6 shows the results of clicking the highlighted icon at the bottom of the navigation bar on the HMC. For the server I selected, which at this time has one partition, I have 38 events to manage. The documentation for managing the events is online. Figure 7 shows the results I got when clicking to see the 38 events, and as you can see, the associated reference codes are shown with live links to the details.

Had the HMC called home, a PMH number would have been displayed in the associated column. Figure 8 shows that "issue 40" means that I configured a network line for duplex, but my network does not support duplex — a user error, but illustrative of the troubleshooting support provided by Version 7 software on the HMC for POWER6-based systems.

To accommodate POWER5 hardware, online documentaion helps for repair, and verify information identifies the hardware for POWER5 systems and displays the proper text for the action. For POWER6 hardware not managed by an HMC, the repair and verify documentation will be shipped with the system on a CD and is extracted from the HMC-based documentation.

Education

Education materials and tutorials are worth checking out. The courses use a multimedia-based tool that features interactive HTML. The courses are available as static PDF files as well. I suggest that you look at the courses that cover the new HMC face or how to obtain firmware updates. To find the courses, click the education and tutorials link on the Welcome page of the HMC.

If you don't have your system or HMC yet, and you want to learn about it, you can go to the IBM Systems Support website and navigate to the education pages. At the time of this writing, the modules have not been posted, but I will be glad to point interested persons to the correct web page once this has occurred.

Tips

Remember, Google searches that result in matches to sites that are not on the IBM Systems Support website are likely matches for older hardware. This could be true even when you use the Advanced Search function and scope the search to the ibm.com domain. The trick here, when searching for POWER6 documentation or HMC documentation for Version 7 of the software, is that the search result should be a PDF file and not an Information Center article.

One of the major focus areas for hardware documentation has been to provide a lookup facility for progress and diagnostic reference codes to help you find them more quickly. Check out the Problem Analysis section and provide feedback!

The HMC is separate from the POWER6 hardware and can be upgraded and used with your POWER5 systems. The hardware documentation for your upgraded hardware remains in place, but the HMC operations guide, education, and tutorials are on the new IBM Systems Support website, as well as on the HMC itself.

Let Us Know What You Think

For hardware, the documentation is changing both in format and in delivery. So although software documentation is working to improve its online delivery framework, as Kris and Kori have pointed out, hardware is consolidating into a PDF delivery format, which is the same for System i and System p, and similar to the delivery format for System z platforms. We'd like to hear from you, so please use the feedback form that is on the website to tell us what you think.

Edith Lueke works for IBM in the Rochester Development lab in the User Technologies area. She has more than 30 years of experience as a usability specialist in IBM, focusing on networking and e-business, as well as installation, migration, and service usability. Most recently, she has worked toward better usability to support users and their tasks for the POWER5 server and the HMC. You can e-mail Edith at lueke@us.ibm.com.