IAAS - Automated IBM AIX LPAR Provisioning

As an Infrastructure Automation Engineer at La Banque Postale, I designed and developed an end-to-end automated provisioning solution for IBM AIX Logical Partitions (LPARs).

Previously, deploying an AIX server required manual coordination between system, network, and storage teams, with provisioning times ranging from several days to several weeks.

Working within an Agile team of approximately 10 infrastructure engineers, I coordinated the automation of these different components using Micro Focus Operations Orchestration (OO), Cloud Service Automation (CSA), IBM NIM, and Ansible. The solution allowed users to request a fully configured AIX server through the company's ITSM portal. The automation handled LPAR provisioning, operating system deployment, network and storage configuration, software installation, agent registration, and CMDB updates.

I also implemented automated resource resizing, server decommissioning, and failure recovery mechanisms allowing workflows to resume from their last successful step. The result was a fully configured AIX LPAR provisioned in approximately 30 minutes, compared with several days or weeks previously.

Project Context - Transforming Manual Infrastructure Delivery into Self-Service

At La Banque Postale, deploying an IBM AIX server involved multiple infrastructure teams responsible for different parts of the provisioning process. System engineers managed LPAR creation and operating system installation, network engineers configured connectivity, and storage teams provisioned the required volumes.

Each step depended on the previous one, making server delivery time-consuming and vulnerable to coordination delays. Our objective was to automate this process and expose it as a self-service infrastructure offering through the company's ITSM portal.

Users could select predefined configurations for CPU, memory, storage, and network connectivity, without needing to coordinate the underlying technical operations.

Orchestrating End-to-End AIX Provisioning

I developed the provisioning workflow using Micro Focus OO and CSA, integrating automation components maintained by the different infrastructure teams.

The process covered the complete server lifecycle:

1. ITSM Request: Collect the user's requirements and selected infrastructure profiles.
2. LPAR & OS Provisioning: Create the required AIX environment and deploy the operating system using standardized IBM NIM workflows.
3. Network Configuration: Assign network interfaces, IP addresses, and DNS configuration according to the selected connectivity profile.
4. Resource Allocation: Provision CPU, RAM, and storage based on predefined infrastructure templates.
5. Software Configuration: Execute Ansible playbooks to install required RPM packages and system dependencies.
6. Management Integration: Install and register agents for services such as Nexus, patch management, Splunk, and other enterprise tools.
7. CMDB Registration: Automatically register the newly provisioned server in the company's configuration management databases.

The orchestration coordinated these operations across multiple infrastructure domains while maintaining a consistent provisioning workflow.

Building Resilient Automation and Lifecycle Management

One of the main technical challenges was ensuring that the automation remained reliable despite the number of systems and infrastructure components involved. A failure during storage provisioning or network configuration shouldn't require restarting the entire deployment.

I implemented error-handling and recovery mechanisms that allowed interrupted workflows to resume from their last successful execution step. This significantly improved the robustness of the provisioning process and reduced the need for manual intervention.

I also extended the automation beyond initial server creation by implementing:

• Resource Resizing: Automated CPU and memory capacity changes for existing LPARs.
• Server Decommissioning: Orchestrated server retirement across the relevant infrastructure components.

These capabilities helped establish a consistent approach to managing AIX servers throughout their lifecycle.

• Infrastructure Orchestration: Designed and implemented the end-to-end provisioning workflow using Micro Focus OO/CSA and Ansible, integrating system, network, storage, and software configuration automation.
• Cross-Team Technical Coordination: Collaborated with approximately 10 engineers across multiple infrastructure specialties, defining integration requirements and coordinating the automation of their respective components.
• Reliability & Error Handling: Implemented workflow recovery mechanisms allowing failed deployments to resume from their last successful step instead of restarting the entire process.
• Infrastructure Lifecycle Automation: Developed automated workflows for LPAR provisioning, CPU and memory resizing, server decommissioning, and integration with enterprise management systems.

• Reduced AIX server provisioning from days or weeks to approximately 30 minutes: Automated the complete deployment process, delivering a fully configured and registered LPAR from a single ITSM request.
• Automated 7 major provisioning stages: Integrated LPAR creation, OS installation, network configuration, resource allocation, software installation, management agent registration, and CMDB updates into one orchestration workflow.
• Introduced recoverable infrastructure deployments: Enabled failed workflows to resume from their last successful step, avoiding unnecessary repetition of completed infrastructure operations.
• Extended automation across the server lifecycle: Delivered self-service provisioning, CPU and memory resizing, and server decommissioning through standardized workflows.