Cloning an AIX system fails

[rodak]

I'm trying to clone an AIX installation. currently it's running on an
H80, and I'm trying to clone it onto a p5-550 I boot from the AIX
install CD, go to Maintentance Mode, Restore System Backup, point it
to the mksysb image I've created on CD from the H80. It reads through
all four CDs without restoring anything, then comes up with

Log[2]: 7134
Killed
BOS Install: Could not copy volume group information to the
disk.
ID#
OPTION
1
Continue
2 Perform System Maintenance and Then
Continue
Enter ID
number:

I've done this before, from one system to another with unlike
architecture, and it's always worked. Not sure what I might be doing
wrong this time.

one thing I did change - the restore came up wanting to plant the
system on two of the 146GB drives on my 550 - I changed it to use two
70GB drives instead. The H80 has it's rootvg on two 9GB drives.

[Hajo Ehlers]

The mksysb uses a bosinst.data file created during its run - see man
mksysb - for details.
So you can either redo the mksysb and following the notes from the man
page , install from nim or simply let the installation using the large
drive and afterwards migrate to the smaller disk . I would prefer the
last given option.

hth
Hajo

[nuttnhoney]

If I'm interpreting the man page correctly, then what I need to do is
copy /var/adm/ras/bosinst.data to /save_bosinst.data, then edit that
file and delete the target_disk_data stanza. Does that sound right?
I'll give it a try.

[nuttnhoney]

Thanks for the info, but that's not the problem I'm, having. On the
restore, I can pick any disks I want to restore to. It starts the
restore, goes through the "creating filesystems" steps, then reads
through all four CDs, while it sits at "0% mksysb data restored", then
comes up with the error shown above. I've done this several times,
always with the same results.

[rodak]

Sorry about that - the previous 2 posts were from me - I was logged in
with my wife's account.

[Hajo Ehlers]

Which AIX CDs are you using ? Maybe they are out dated for the
power5 ?

In case yes, update the firmware of the H80 to its latest level,
update to AIX 5.3 , install all drivers and redo your procedure !

cheers
Hajo

[rodak]

Ah, if only it were that easy. Unfortunately, part of the reason I'm
doing this is to get this system up to 5.3! It's a very critical
system, and they don't want to schedule the 2-3 hours of downtime
necessary to do an upgrade to 5.3, so we thought we'd clone it to a
new server, do the upgrade, then shut off the old, plug the NIC into
the new one, and off we'd go. It would also get us off the old H80
hardware.

I'm using the only 5.2 AIX CDs I have - ML04. (they're original IBM
CDs, if that's what you want to know.

Unless I can come up with something soon, I'm going to have to do a
fresh install and configure the application. There's a lot more time
and effort involved with that, though, and I was trying to avoid it.

[Hajo Ehlers]

On Jul 9, 2:54 pm, rodak <robert.macn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Ah, if only it were that easy. Unfortunately, part of the reason I'm
> doing this is to get this system up to 5.3! It's a very critical
> system, and they don't want to schedule the 2-3 hours of downtime
> necessary to do an upgrade to 5.3, so we thought we'd clone it to a
> new server, do the upgrade, then shut off the old, plug the NIC into
> the new one, and off we'd go. It would also get us off the old H80
> hardware.
>
> I'm using the only 5.2 AIX CDs I have - ML04. (they're original IBM
> CDs, if that's what you want to know.

They been provided by IBM with the p520 ? Otherwise get fresh CDs from
IBM

In case your H80 is running at AIX 5.2 ML04 or higher - which is the
minimum requirement for the p520 - why not make a NIM server out of
the H80 and install the p520 via the H80.

Then disconnect the machine from the network and update to AIX 5.3

In case the H80 is lower then ML04 you will fail anyway.

cheers
Hajo

[rodak]

The H80 is at 5.2 ML04. No, those CDs weren't provided with the 520,
but AIx CDs aren't machine-specific anyway.

I don't know enough about NIM to do what you've suggested. I've
messed with it a bit, but it's just too complex and confusing. It's
on my list of things to do (to figure it out and fully implement it),
but it hasn't risen to the top of the pile yet. Plus, I'm not about
to go mucking about installing, configuring and testing software I'm
not familiar with on a production system.

[Hajo Ehlers]

On Jul 9, 4:19 pm, rodak <robert.macn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jul 9, 10:08 am, Hajo Ehlers <serv...@metamodul.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Jul 9, 2:54 pm, rodak <robert.macn...@gmail.com> wrote:> Ah, if only it were that easy. Unfortunately, part of the reason I'm
> > > doing this is to get this system up to 5.3! It's a very critical
> > > system, and they don't want to schedule the 2-3 hours of downtime
> > > necessary to do an upgrade to 5.3, so we thought we'd clone it to a
> > > new server, do the upgrade, then shut off the old, plug the NIC into
> > > the new one, and off we'd go. It would also get us off the old H80
> > > hardware.
>
> > > I'm using the only 5.2 AIX CDs I have - ML04. (they're original IBM
> > > CDs, if that's what you want to know.
>
> > They been provided by IBM with the p520 ? Otherwise get fresh CDs from
> > IBM
>
> > In case your H80 is running at AIX 5.2 ML04 or higher - which is the
> > minimum requirement for the p520 - why not make a NIM server out of
> > the H80 and install the p520 via the H80.
>
> > Then disconnect the machine from the network and update to AIX 5.3
>
> > In case the H80 is lower then ML04 you will fail anyway.
>
> > cheers
> > Hajo
>
> The H80 is at 5.2 ML04. No, those CDs weren't provided with the 520,
> but AIx CDs aren't machine-specific anyway.

The p5 520 needs AIX 5.2 ML4 as its minimum. Thus the bootable image
on the CD MUST BE at this level. A lower level with an update CD to
ML4 will not work.
So far about the " aren't machine-specific anyway. "

A simple test is to do a simple installation of the p520 using your
AIX CDs. In case the installation fails you know the cause.

Since i have no really further ideas i am OOD

cheers
Hajo

[rodak]

I appreciate all your attention to the problem, Hajo. Yes, the
install CD I'm using is AIX 5.2 ML04 (not a base install with ML04 on
an update CD).

I kind of favor doing a fresh 5.3 install and configuring from
scratch, just thought cloning the running system would save time (also
the application we're working with is kind of ornery, and was a real
pain to get installed in the first place).

This is my last AIX 5.2 system, and my last non-POWER5 system, so I'll
be glad to be rid of both. It's strictly 5.3 and p5 or better from
here on for me!

[tmpo...@netscape.net]

Do you have a spare drive(s) on the H80 you can do an alt disk install
to with 5.3 CDs.

I've allways upgraded my OS before moving to new hardware. Alt disk
install creates a new rootvg on the other disk(s) leaving you the
ability to fallback to the old OS with just a reboot porting over to
new hardware from a mksysb shouldn't be a trick then

[Jose Pina Coelho]

rodak <robert....@gmail.com> wrote in
news:f79f9a10-b77a-4835...@i8g2000pro.googlegroups.com:

> I don't know enough about NIM to do what you've suggested.

Then get an mksysb of the H80.

Install 5.3 on one disk the p5 and use alt_disk_install to install the
mksysb on the other disk.

Don't forget to edit the image.data to allow for not having two disks.