topic mkboot command in Operating System - HP-UX

mkboot command

Elliott Moskowitz — Fri, 24 Aug 2001 16:39:54 GMT

I have the following 3 (hopefully not stupid) questions.

1) How can I tell if the q option was used in a mkboot command.

2) In some of the threads of the mkboot command that I?ve looked at, the hardware path is fully specified in the mkboot command and in other threads just (;0) is specified. What?s the difference ?

3) Following is output from 2 remote systems. I asked the operators to boot off the alternate disks of each of the 2 systems by interrupting the boot sequence and typing bo alt. System A didn?t boot off the alternate until the operator typed hpux ?lq. System B went ok. I checked and the paths indicated below are correct. Any suggestions of anything else I could look at.

------ Output from System A

# lifls /dev/rdsk/c1t3d0
ISL AUTO HPUX PAD LABEL
# lifls /dev/rdsk/c2t6d0
ISL AUTO HPUX PAD LABEL SSINFO

# lifcp /dev/dsk/c1t3d0:AUTO ?
hpux (8/8.3.0)/stand/vmunix
# lifcp /dev/dsk/c2t6d0:AUTO ?
hpux

# setboot
Primary bootpath : 8/16/5.6.0
Alternate bootpath : 8/8.3.0

Autoboot is ON (enabled)
Autosearch is ON (enabled)

# lvlnboot -v
Boot Definitions for Volume Group /dev/vg00:
Physical Volumes belonging in Root Volume Group:
/dev/dsk/c2t6d0 (8/16/5.6.0) -- Boot Disk
/dev/dsk/c1t3d0 (8/8.3.0) -- Boot Disk

Boot: lvol1 on: /dev/dsk/c2t6d0
/dev/dsk/c1t3d0
Root: lvol3 on: /dev/dsk/c2t6d0
/dev/dsk/c1t3d0
Swap: lvol2 on: /dev/dsk/c2t6d0
/dev/dsk/c1t3d0
Dump: lvol2 on: /dev/dsk/c2t6d0, 0

--------- Output from System B

# lifls /dev/rdsk/c2t5d0
ODE MAPFILE SYSLIB CONFIGDATA SLMOD
SLDEV SLDRIVERS SLSCSI MAPPER IOTEST
PERFVER PVCU SSINFO HPUX ISL
AUTO LABEL

# lifls /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0
ISL AUTO HPUX PAD LABEL

# lifcp /dev/dsk/c2t5d0:AUTO ?
hpux
# lifcp /dev/dsk/c0t4d0:AUTO -
hpux (8/4.4.0)/stand/vmunix

# setboot
Primary bootpath : 8/12.5.0
Alternate bootpath : 8/4.4.0

Autoboot is ON (enabled)
Autosearch is ON (enabled)

# lvlnboot ?v

Boot Definitions for Volume Group /dev/vg00:
Physical Volumes belonging in Root Volume Group:
/dev/dsk/c2t5d0 (8/12.5.0) -- Boot Disk
/dev/dsk/c0t4d0 (8/4.4.0) -- Boot Disk

Boot: lvol1 on: /dev/dsk/c2t5d0
/dev/dsk/c0t4d0
Root: lvol3 on: /dev/dsk/c2t5d0
/dev/dsk/c0t4d0
Swap: lvol2 on: /dev/dsk/c2t5d0
/dev/dsk/c0t4d0
Dump: lvol2 on: /dev/dsk/c2t5d0, 0

Re: mkboot command

Christopher McCray_1 — Fri, 24 Aug 2001 16:50:11 GMT

for question #2, when the full hardware address is specified, this is an alternate path, the (;0) means the primary boot path.

Question 3: you need to execute mkboot -a "hpux -lq" to each of the mirrored disks; ex: mkboot -a "hpux -lq" /dev/rdsk/c2t6d0
mkboot -a "hpux -lq" /dev/rdsk/c1t6d0
Hope this helps.

Chris

Re: mkboot command

Elliott Moskowitz — Fri, 24 Aug 2001 17:25:47 GMT

The "q" option that I was referring to in question 1 was in the following command (i.e. the q option is really in the "hpux" command)

mkboot -a "hpux -lq" /dev/rdsk/bootdisk.

And my questions is how can I tell if that command was issued on a system that I took over administration.

Re: mkboot command

Sridhar Bhaskarla — Fri, 24 Aug 2001 17:30:51 GMT

When you do a lifcp command, it gives the AUTO string

# lifcp /dev/dsk/c2t5d0:AUTO ?
hpux
# lifcp /dev/dsk/c0t4d0:AUTO -
hpux (8/4.4.0)/stand/vmunix

So they didn't use -lq option while running mkboot command.

You can use mkboot command to update the autostring

mkboot -a "hpux -lq (;0)/stand/vmunix" /dev/dsk/c0t4d0

I would suggest to refresh lvlnboot by doing a
lvlnboot -R after mkboot

-Sri

Re: mkboot command

Christopher McCray_1 — Fri, 24 Aug 2001 17:41:28 GMT

the -lq in hpux -lq stands for low quorum. You use this in the mkboot -a command when your bootable mirror set is basically 2 disks. You need to specify something else. Sorry for not understanding.

Chris

Re: mkboot command

Thierry Poels_1 — Fri, 24 Aug 2001 17:53:11 GMT

Hi,

2) the difference between an explicitly specified path and just (;0) ?

well, ... less typework ;-) and less risk for typing mistakes. It will use the current disk to boot from. There are very rare cases where a fully specified path fails; I've never heard of problems with (;0) so I would presume (;0) is prefered.
BTW nice smiley ;)

regards,
Thierry.

Re: mkboot command

Elliott Moskowitz — Fri, 24 Aug 2001 17:56:58 GMT

To rephrase my questions, assuming that there is a properly mirrored system disk what should I see in the AUTO file when I issue the command lifcp /dev/dsk/cxtxdx:AUTO - on the primary and alternate disks. Please use System A as the example.

Re: mkboot command

Sridhar Bhaskarla — Fri, 24 Aug 2001 18:05:57 GMT

You should see the same AUTO string on both the disks

hpux -lq (;0)/stand/vmunix /dev/dsk/pri_boot_disk
"hpux -lq (;0)/stand/vmunix" /dev/dsk/alt_boot_disk

-Sri

Re: mkboot command

Sridhar Bhaskarla — Fri, 24 Aug 2001 18:10:20 GMT

oops.. Please forget about the quotes.

#lifcp /dev/dsk/pri_boot_disk:AUTO -

hpux -lq (;0)/stand/vmunix

#lifcp /dev/dsk/alt_boot_disk:AUTO -

hpux -lq (;0)/stand/vmunix

Also when you do an lvlnboot -v, you should see both the disks appearing everywhere except for dump Logical Volume

-Sri