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unixwerk A I X M i g r a t i o n w i t h M i n i ma l Do w n t i m e
Contents
AIX
1. Introduction
BSD 2. Prerequisites
3. NIM Objects
HP-UX LPP Source
Spot
Linux Client
4. Prepare the Client
Solaris
5. The Migration
6. Cleaning up
Others
A. References
Un*x
Topics
1. Introduction
Alternate Disk Migration is a NIM method to migrate an AIX installation to a higher AIX major release with
minimal downtime. This is done by creating a clone of the rootvg to another disk and then migrating this
copy to the new AIX major release. This has to be done from a NIM server. The downtime is reduced to
Guestbook the time it takes to restart an LPAR.
Contact
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2. Prerequisites
To avoid problems during migration the OS level of the NIM server should be the same as the target OS
level of the client to be migrated. In fact only the bos.alt_disk_install.* filesets of server and
SPOT resource have to be the same level. On the NIM server the level can be checked with:
If you don't see the bos.alt_disk_install.* filesets at all they have to be installed into the spot
(see section NIM Objects -> Spot).
3. NIM Objects
LPP Source
For an Alternate Disk Installation a stripped down LPP source is not sufficient. We need a complete LPP
source for the target OS level. As source the contents of a the AIX 6.1 DVD has to be placed somewhere
where it can be accessed.
We have to install all the update filesets from the target TL into the LPP source:
And finally the filesets for the target SP have to be installed into the LPP source:
Now that the LPP source is complete we are ready to define the NIM object:
Since we just copied over all filesets from the update levels there are a lot of superseded filesets in the
LPP source. These filesets just waste space in the filesystem. We can remove the superseded filesets
along with the language bloat from the LPP source:
Spot
The next step is to define a SPOT resource to use with the just created LPP source.
This will install a new spot into /nim/spot/spot_614_full/usr. The creation of the spot takes a while. As
mentioned before the SPOT must contain the bos.alt_disk_install fileset in order to serve an
Alternate Disk Migration. However, a standard SPOT (as we just defined) doesn't contain it - so we have
to install it manually into the SPOT:
Client
The client definition might already be there on the NIM server - if not we have to define the NIM client
now:
An object for the correct network should be already defined on the NIM server. Script resources (such as
fb_script or script) are not required since all customization remains intact (one of the advantages of this
method to upgrade a server).
We need a free LUN on the client to clone the OS to. Once the new LUN has been assigned to the LPAR
we run 'cfgmgr' to make it usable for the OS. Remember the new hdisk number. We need it in the next
section. The NIM server communicates with the client via rsh. So we have to temporarily enable rsh on
the client:
A file ~root/.rhosts has to be created on the client to grant the NIM server access to the client without
asking for a password:
client# vi ~root/.rhosts
<nimserver> root
From the NIM server we can check that the rsh access is working:
5. The Migration
Everything is in place now and we can start the actual migration with just one command on the NIM
server:
hdisk<N> is the newly assigned LUN from the previous section. After the migration has been completed
all we have to do in order to enable the migrated installation is to reboot the server. The bootlist already
has been adjusted by the NIM migration procedure to point to the new installation. It might be wise to
disable rsh before reboot.
6. Cleaning up
After the system is back again we check the OS level of the new system:
client# oslevel -s
6100-04-04-1014
Note: The experience shows that the migration installation preservers your customization settings pretty
well. However, it might be wise to have a look at the backup of the replaced configuration files under
/tmp/bos.
A. References
AIX 6.1 Information Center > Performing an alternate disk migration installation