Enhancements to New Installation Process for LIC Using USB 3.0 Media

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See New Installation Process for LIC using USB 3.0 media for a description of the base function for a new installation process for LIC that was delivered in October, 2017.

IBM i is extending that base installation process in March 2018, making the IBM i installation easier and more convenient. Additional devices are now supported. In addition to use of a USB Flash drive, RDX media is now also supported. Besides downloading to an IBM i partition or a Windows PC, the IBM i images from the Entitled Systems Support (ESS) website can be downloaded to a Mac for copying to a USB removable media. The IBM-provided USB utility program that is used to copy the Licensed Machine Code from the ESS website to a USB media has been enhanced with a GUI.  

Updated restrictions and scenarios follow:

Requirements:

• Power System with POWER8 or newer technology
• User supplied USB 3.0 Removable Mass Storage (i.e., USB 3.0 Flash drive or RDX cartridge) attached to USB port in a System Unit or to an available USB 3.0 adapter port.  
• IBM i 7.3 Technology Refresh PTF Group, level 3 or later; or IBM i 7.2 Technology Refresh PTF Group, level 7 or later
• To create the media using a Windows PC (version 7 or 10) or a Mac (release 10.11, or later), you need Java 8 or newer.
• If you are obtaining an image from IBM, you must be a registered IBM customer on the ESS website via a customer number, or a hardware serial number of a machine within your enterprise.    
• To create the media using a Windows PC or Mac, you need the IBM-provided USB utility program from the ESS website, dated March 2018 or later.  

Supported scenarios: 
There are several supported scenarios for this new process:

• Obtaining a bootable LIC media image on a USB 3.0 RDX cartridge:  
• You can download the LIC media image (USB image I_BASE_01_*.img, or DVD image I_BASE_01_*.udf) to an existing IBM i partition and use the DUPOPT command to copy it to a USB 3.0 RDX cartridge.
• You can download the LIC media image (USB image I_BASE_01_*.img) to a Windows PC or a Mac.  Use the IBM-provided program from the ESS website to copy it to a USB 3.0 RDX cartridge or USB flash drive plugged into the PC.
• Stacking OS and any desired LPPs that fit onto the USB media:  
• If the USB 3.0 RDX drive or flash drive is plugged into an existing IBM i partition or a Windows PC or Mac, you can also copy IBM i and any LPP images that fit onto its media.
• Performing D-mode IPL to use the bootable LIC media image:  
• On a managed system (e.g. HMC-managed or IVM-managed), select the USB 3.0 adapter that has the copied LIC media image to perform the D-mode IPL
• On an unmanaged system with POWER9 technology, use any of the integrated system USB ports with an RDX catridge or a USB Flash drive for an entire install operation.
• On an unmanaged system with POWER8 or older technology, do a D-mode IPL using a DVD image at the same LIC version/modification level as the USB image to be installed.  Then use the "Define alternate installation device" option to select the USB device to install LIC.  Note that the D-mode device and the alternate install device must have the same LIC version/modification level when installing Licensed Internal Code.

For more detailed information, including specifics about how to get an updated copy of the IBM-provided utility program that is used to copy the LIC from the ESS website to the USB media, go to Optical Containers.