Moving an LPAR to another frame

Moving an LPAR to another frame

Steps for migrating LPAR from ONE Frame to Another IBM Frame

1.Have Storage zone the LPARs disk to the new HBA(s). Also have them add an additional 40GB drive for the new boot disk. By doing this we have a back out to the old boot disk on the old frame.

2. Collect data from the current LPAR:

a. Network information – Write down IP and ipv4 alias(s) for each interface

b. Run “oslevel –r” - will need this when setting up NIM for the mksysb recovery

c. Is the LPAR running AIO, if so will need to configure after the mksysb recovery

d. Run “lspv”, save this output, contains volume group and PVID information

e. Any other customizations you deem neccessary


3. create mksysb backup of this LPAR

4. Reconfigure the NIM machine for this LPAR, with new Ethernet MAC address. Foolproof method is to remove the machine and re-create it.

5. In NIM, configure the LPAR for a mksysb recovery. Select the appropriate SPOT and LPP Source, base on “oslevel –r” data collected in step 2.

6. Shut down the LPAR on the old frame (Halt the LPAR)

7. Move network cables, fibre cables, disk, zoning

8. if needed, to the LPAR on the new frame

9. On the HMC, bring up the LPAR on the new frame in SMS mode and select a network boot. Verify SMS profile has only a single HBA (if Clarrion attached, zoned to a single SP), otherwise the recovery will fail with a 554.

10. Follow prompts for building a new OS. Select the new 40GB drive for the boot disk (use lspv info collected in Step 2 to identify the correct 40GB drive). Leave defaults for remaining questions NO (shrink file systems, recover devices, and import volume groups).

11. After the LPAR has booted, from the console (the network interface may be down):

a. lspv Note the hdisk# of the bootdisk

b. bootlist –m normal –o Verify boot list is set – if not, set it

bootlist –m normal –o hdisk#

c. ifconfig en0 down If interface got configured, down it

d. ifconfig en0 detach and remove it


e. lsdev –Cc adapter Note Ethernet interfaces (ex. ent0, ent1)

f. rmdev –dl Remove all en devices

g. rmdev –dl Remove all ent devices

h. cfgmgr Will rediscover the en/ent devices

i. chdev –l -a media_speed=100_Full_Duplex Set on each interface unless

running GIG, leave defaults


j. Configure the network interfaces and aliases Use info recorded from step 2 mktcpip –h -a -m -i -g -A no –t N/A –s

chdev –l en# -a alias4=,


k. Verify that the network is working.


12. If LPAR was running AIO (data collected in Step 2), verify it is running (smitty aio)

13. Check for any other customizations which may have been made on this LPAR

14. Vary on the volume groups, use the “lspv” data collected in Step 2 to identify by PVID a hdisk in each volume group. Run for each volume group:

a. importvg –y hdisk# Will vary on all hdisk in the volume group

b. varyonvg 

c. mount all Verify mounts are good

15. Verify paging space is configured appropriately

a. lsps –a Look for Active and Auto set to yes

b. chps –ay pagingXX Run for each paging space, sets Auto

c. swapon /dev/pagingxx Run for each paging space, sets Active


16. Verify LPAR is running 64 bit

a. bootinfo –K If 64, you are good


b. ln –sf /usr/lib/boot/unix_64 /unix If 32, change to run 64 bit

c. ln –sf /usr/lib/boot/unix_64 /usr/lib/boot/unix

d. bosboot –ak /usr/lib/boot/unix_64


17. If LPAR has Power Path

a. Run “powermt config” Creates the powerpath0 device

b. Run “pprootdev on” Sets Power Path control of the boot disk

c. If Clariion, make configuration changes to enable SP failover


chdev -l powerpath0 -Pa QueueDepthAdj=1

chdev –l fcsX –Pa num_cmd_elems=2048 For each fiber adapter

chdev –l fscsiX –Pa fc_err_recov=fast_fail For each fiber adapter

d. Halt the LPAR

e. Activate the Normal profile If Sym/DMX – verify two HBA’s in profile

f. If Clarrion attached, have Storage add zone to 2nd SP

i. Run cfgmgr Configure the 2nd set of disk


g. Run “pprootdev fix” Put rootdisk pvid’s back on hdisk

h. lspv grep rootvg Get boot disk hdisk#

i. bootlist –m normal –o hdisk# hdisk# Set the boot list with both hdisk


20. From the HMC, remove the LPAR profile from the old frame

21. Pull cables from the old LPAR (Ethernet and fiber), deactivate patch panel ports

22. Update documentation, Server Master, AIX Hardware spreadsheet, Patch Panel spreadsheet

23. Return the old boot disk to storage.

Migration of AIX LPAR from one hardware to other

Supported Methods of Duplicating an AIX System


Technote (FAQ)

Question
I would like to move, duplicate, or clone an AIX system onto another partition or hardware. How can I accomplish this?



Answer
This document describes the supported methods of duplicating, or cloning, an AIX instance to create new systems based on an existing one. It also describes methods known to us that are not supported and will not work.
Why Duplicate A System?
Duplicating an installed and configured AIX system has some advantages over installing AIX from scratch, and can be a faster way to get a new LPAR or system up and running.

Using this method customized configuration files, installation of additional AIX filesets, application configurations and tuning parameters can be set up once and then installed on another system or partition.


Supported Methods

1. Cloning a system via mksysb backup from one system and restore to new system.

This can either be a mksysb backup of the rootvg from the source system to tape, DVD, or a file on a NIM server.

If the mksysb is going to be used to create a new machine, make sure to set 'recover devices' to NO when it is restored. This will insure that devices existing on the source machine aren't added to the ODM of the target machine.


2. Using the alt_disk_copy command.

If you have extra disks on your system, or have disks you would like to associate with one system, load a rootvg, then remove them and associate with a new system, this is a good way to copy the rootvg to them.

The basic command to do this would be:

# alt_disk_copy -BOd hdiskx

The -B option tells alt_disk_copy not to change the bootlist to this new copy of rootvg, the -O option will remove devices from your customized ODM database.

From the alt_disk_copy man page:

-O
Performs a device reset on the target altinst_rootvg. This causes
the alternate disk install to not retain any user-defined device
configurations. This flag is useful if the target disk or disks
become the rootvg of a different system (such as in the case of
logical partitioning or system disk swap).

When the disks containing this altinst_rootvg are moved to another host and then booted from, AIX will run cfgmgr and probe for any hardware, adding ODM information at that time.


3. Using alt_disk_mksysb to install a mksysb image on another disk.

Using this technique a mksysb image is first created, either to a file, on CD or DVD or tape.

Then that mksysb image is restored to unused disks in the current system using alt_disk_mksysb, again using the -O option to perform a device reset.

After this the disks could be removed and placed in a new system, or via fibre rezoned to a new system, and the rootvg booted up.


Advanced Techniques

1. Live Partition Mobility

Using the Live Partition Mobility feature of AIX you can migrate an AIX LPAR and applications from one LPAR to another while it is up and running. Please see the AIX Manual for further information:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/aix/v6r1/topic/com.ibm.aix.baseadmn/doc/baseadmndita/lpm_overview.htm


2. Higher Availability Using SAN Services

There are methods not described here, which have been documented by DeveloperWorks.
Please refer to the document "AIX higher availability using SAN services" for details.

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/aix/library/au-AIX_HA_SAN/index.html


Unsupported Methods

1. Using a bitwise copy of a rootvg disk to another disk.

This bitwise copy can be a one-time snapshot copy such as flashcopy, from one disk to another, or a continuously-updating copy method, such as Metro Mirror.

While these methods will give you an exact duplicate of the installed AIX operating system, the copy of the OS may not be bootable.


2. Removing the rootvg disks from one system and inserting into another.

This also applies to re-zoning SAN disks that contain the rootvg so another host can see them and attempt to boot from them.


Why don't these methods work?

The reason for this is there are many objects in an AIX system that are unique to it; Hardware location codes, World-Wide Port Names, partition identifiers, and Vital Product Data (VPD) to name a few. Most of these objects or identifiers are stored in the ODM and used by AIX commands.

If a disk containing the AIX rootvg in one system is copied bit-for-bit (or removed), then inserted in another system, the firmware in the second system will describe an entirely different device tree than the AIX ODM expects to find, because it is operating on different hardware. Devices that were previously seen will show missing or removed, and usually the system will typically fail to boot with LED 554 (unknown boot disk).

AIX videos Links

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/display/WikiPtype/Movies#Movies-power7


Welcome to the POWER6/POWER7 and AIX6 Hands-On Technical Product Demos
The idea is to provide the "cook book" information to get your started with these new interesting technologies and to answer some basic questions:

•What is it about?
•How do I get started?
•What are a few typical first good uses I could start with?
•How easy is it to use?
•How could this save me time or money?
•Where can I get more information?
We hope you find these movies interesting and let you make a flying start.

Currently, the movies add up to 20.6 hours of free education on the hottest topics.

Quick links to the main sections:

1.POWER7 Processor
2.AIX Workload Partitions
3.AIX6 and AIX7 Operating System Features
4.POWER6 Processor Features
5.Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM)
6.Other Cool & Interesting Stuff
7.IBM System Director 6 on AIX
8.Thirteen More Director 6 Movies
9.Back to POWER Basics
10.New Virtualisation Features
11.PowerHA SystemMirror 7.1 for AIX
The latest movies added are:

•2nd Sept 2010 - How Systems Director Saves Me Time - movie 84
•12th Jan 2011 - Shared Storage Pools Hands-On - movie 85
•28th Jan 2011 - Shared Storage Pools Intro - movie 86
•March 2011 - HACMP = PowerHA System Mirror
◦On this Techdocs website the famous Shawn Bodily, Power/AIX Advanced Technical Skills, USA presents four technical movies on AIX High Availability. These are in .mov format. I had to download Apple QuickTime to view them as other players don't work (mostly audio problems).
•PowerHA SystemMirror 7.1 for AIX by HACMP Guru Alex Abderrazag - this includes a set of 6 movies:
1.PowerHA Introduction to a typical environment used in the movies
2.PowerHA Configuration via SMIT
3.PowerHA The "clmgr" command
4.PowerHA High Availability in Action
5.PowerHA SAN Communications
6.PowerHA Application Monitoring
Notes on getting the movies to work on your PC:

•These movies are in Windows Movie Format (.wmv) to make them small enough to watch over the internet or download but this means some quality has been lost from the Audio Video Interleave (.avi) originals which are 60 MB to 90 MBs in size.
•When tested on some PCs it took 4 to 5 minutes to start the movie - please be patient and don't just assume its broken - some browsers download the entire movie before they start playing it.
•Other browsers handle the media file differently - some start Windows Media Player and some start it within the browser itself. Also I have found that some auto resize the movie to fit the window - so start the movie in a suitable sized browser window. The movies where first recorded at 1024x768 but later ones at 800x600 but higher resolution. Sorry but I rather create new movies than try to regenerate them all to one size. If the movie does not fit your screen the best fix is to upgrade your screen to at least 1280x1024
•If all else fails try to download the .wmv file and play locally on your machine: using Right Click on the Download link below and selecting "Save Link as" or "Save Target as". This may highlight your PC does not support this format (good luck sorting that out!).
•Linux workstation users - ideas please, can Linux handle the .mwv format? If so, how or a good alternative solution is welcome.
◦I am told that Linux can indeed play this format - have a look at this website for hints Ubuntu - Installing Mplayer Codecs and installing OpenSUSE codecs is really simple too.
•Windows 7 users - some of the older movies do not work with Windows 7 Media Player. This appears to be missing CODEC's from Windows 7 that were in early Windows versions send your comments to Microsoft. We fixed this by downloading the ACELP CODEC from http://www.voiceage.com/acelp_eval.php - strictly at your own risk. I installed the Vista-64 version as I run Windows 7. Then watching the movie via the Windows Media Center (not the Player).
•For Windows 7 these movies have been remastered (August 2010) to fix Windows 7 problems of lack of certain CODECs found in earlier Windows versions, poor audio or hangs half way through: DFP, HMC7 Partition Mobility, Memory Keys, Partition Priority, CPU Pools and Monitoring Pools, Ganglia and PowerVM LX86.
•Feed back and further ideas for movies to Nigel Griffiths - nag at uk dot ibm dot com

cluster states

QHA

The standard tool for cluster monitoring is clstat, which comes along with HACMP. Clstat is rather slow with its updates, and sometimes the required clinfo deamon needs restarting in order to get it operational, so this is, well, not good. There's a script which is a lot better. It is written by HACMP guru Alex Abderrazag. This script shows you the correct HACMP status, along with adapter and volume group information. It works fine on HACMP 5.2 until 6.1. You can download it here: qha. This is version 8.03 (latest update: 25/04/2007). For the latest version, check www.lpar.co.uk.

This tiny but effective tool accepts two flags:

•   -n (show network info)
•   -v (show shared online vg)

So, you can run # qha or # qha -v or # qha -n or # qha -nv. 

A description of the possible cluster states:

• ST_INIT: cluster configured and down
• ST_JOINING: node joining the cluster
• ST_VOTING: Inter-node decision state for an event
• ST_RP_RUNNING: cluster running recovery program
• ST_BARRIER: clstrmgr waiting at the barrier statement
• ST_CBARRIER: clstrmgr is exiting recovery program
• ST_UNSTABLE: cluster unstable
• NOT_CONFIGURED: HA installed but not configured
• RP_FAILED: event script failed
• ST_STABLE: cluster services are running with managed resources (stable cluster) or cluster services have been "forced" down with resource groups potentially in the UNMANAGED state (HACMP 5.4 only)