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Technote (FAQ) Question How do i use alternate disk cloning? Answer Introduction to Alternate Disk Cloning on AIX 5.3 & 6.1
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Introduction to Alt_Cloning on AIX 5.3 & 6.1 AIX Solaris UNIX Linux system storage... Page 2 of 11
Overview Introduction What this document will cover What this document will not cover What is an alt_clone and why is it useful? What is an alt_disk_mksysb and why is it useful? What filesets need to be installed to run an alt_clone? What commands do I need to run to create a basic alt_clone? How do I create an alt_clone while updating it at the sametime? How-to wake up the altinst_rootvg and put it to sleep Useful flags for the alt_clone Frequently Asked Questions, (FAQ)
Introduction
This guide is intended for those who are new to alternate disk cloning, (or alt_clone for short) and would like to understand the alt_clone process. If you would like to learn more about alternate disk cloning, visit the IBM publib website and search on alt_disk. Link is provided below. http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/pseries/v5r3/index.jsp? topic=/com.ibm.aix.resources/RELNOTES/53_base_relnotes.htm For future reference, any device (cdrom, hdisk, or tape) will always be cd0, hdisk0 or rmt0 unless otherwise noted. This document and the examples included will use "hdisk0" as our "rootvg" drive and "hdisk1" as our target "altinst_rootvg" drive. You may, depending on your environment, need to use other devices...substitute as needed. Finally, whenever there is an actual command to execute, it will look just like your command line interface on your AIX system. For example if I want you to do a listing of files in a directory I would have:
# ls -al
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Technology Level / Service Pack updates using alt_clone Command line and SMIT usage for the various alt_ commands. How to safely manage your altinst_rootvg environment to avoid ODM corruption. Frequently Asked Questions
Lesser used flags and operations (all of which can be found by following the infocenter link provided above). Any NIM related operations in conjunction with alt_disk_copy or alt_disk_mksysb
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The mksysb must have all necessary device and kernel support required for the system it will be cloned to. You can not clone your mksysb and then add device support later. The bos.alt_disk_install.boot_images fileset has to be installed on the source server, (where the mksysb came from) and on the target server where alt_clone will take place. The version, release and TL of the bos.alt_disk_install.boot_images fileset must match the oslevel in the mksysb. So if the mksysb was created at 5.3TL7, the boot_images must be at 5.3.7.X. You can not clone a mksysb that is at a lower level against the server you are cloning to; meaning a 5.3TL7 mksysb can not be cloned to a 5.3TL10 server.
(NOTE: Even though the alt_clone & alt_disk_mksysb are very reliable backups, it SHOULD NOT replace your mksysb or sysback backups.)
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# alt_rootvg_op -W -d hdisk1 When you have finished working with your altinst_rootvg you MUST put it back to sleep before rebooting. # alt_rootvg_op -S If you wake up the altinst_rootvg or the old_rootvg and you reboot without putting the alt_clone disk back to sleep, both rootvgs run the risk of being corrupted. The corruption can manifest itself in several ways:
Server hangs on reboot, (usually around LED 517, 518, 552 or 554 when it tries to varyon the rootvg or mount the rootvg filesystems). The ODM is corrupted, (command stops working or generate error messages after you run the command.) If your system does boot up you may see extended filesystem names such as: /alt_inst/alt_inst/var and logical volume names such as: alt_alt_hd9var
Also, the wake up command was designed to wake up the altinst_rootvg at the same level as the current rootvg or to wake the old_rootvg once we are booted to the altinst_rootvg. Waking up the altinst_rootvg which is running at a higher technology level compared to the current rootvg is not supported.
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alt_rootvg_op flags -d target_disk Needed for most rootvg_op commands except for the X and -S flags. -C Customization operation - This flag is needed if you want to run an update_all or any other customization to your altinst_rootvg. -b bundle_name Use this flag to specify a software bundle, (like the update_all bundle for example.) The -l flag must be used with this option. -l images_location Location of your update filesets. -W Performs a wake-up on the root volume group located on the target_disk. -S Puts to sleep the alternate root volume group that experienced a previous "wake" operation. -t Once you wake up your altinst_rootvg, you can rebuild the boot image when you put the volume group back to sleep. This is useful in case you saw a bosboot error during your alt_clone process but you want to make sure that the boot image is valid on the altinst_rootvg. You have to use the -S with the -t flag. -X Removes the altinst_rootvg or old_rootvg volume group definition from the ODM database. EX. If you are booted off the altinst_rootvg and you want to remove the odm information for old_rootvg, you would run the following: # alt_rootvg_op -X old_rootvg
alt_disk_mksysb flags -d target_disk(s) The disk or disks you want to clone too. -m The value for device can be: Tape / CD device OR path name of mksysb image in a file system. EX. If you want to clone a mksysb located under /usr/sys/inst.images to hdisk1, you would run the following: # alt_disk_mksysb -m /usr/sys/inst.images/mksysb_filename -d hdisk1 -i image_data Used if you have a customized image.data file. A common use of a custom image.data file would be to break the mirrors on the rootvg so you can clone a mirrored
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rootvg environment to one disk EX. If your rootvg is mirrored to hdisk0 & hdisk1 and you want to alt_clone to a single disk, (hdisk2 for example) using a customized image.data file located under /home/image.data, you would run the following:
# alt_disk_mksysb -m /usr/sys/inst.images/mksysb_filename i /home/image.data -d hdisk2
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can run the following command to clone hdisk0 to hdisk1. You can then physically remove hdisk1 and take it to another system. EX. # alt_disk_copy O d hdisk1 This performs a device reset on hdisk1. Using the safest method possible: You would then rmdev hdisk1, shutdown the server, physically remove that disk, go to another server that is powered down and plug in the disk. Power up the server and that disk will be detected by cfgmgr on boot up. It is not supported to simply pull a disk from one server and place it in another server without running through this process. Q: Does alt_disk_copy convert JFS filesystems to JFS2? A: Yes! Starting at 6100-04, a new flag was introduced that would convert JFS filesystems to JFS2. We now have the -T which does the conversion.
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