topic Boot question with FC60s in Operating System - HP-UX

Boot question with FC60s

John D. Timmel — Mon, 12 Nov 2001 17:51:44 GMT

I have four identical hardware configured HP N Class servers running HPUX 11.0. (same exact devices, in the same exact slots)
1) They have a local boot drive (two in a mirror set)
and
2) mount disks off the same FC60.
If one of my servers were to go down, could I put the (one or both) boot drive into another server and boot it up. (assuming it were not corrupt, etc)
Also, if my boot device was on the FC60, could I do the "same" by booting to the disk of the system that were down?
Unfortunately, MC Service Guard is not currently an option!

I'll cross post this in the FC60 area.

Thanks in advance,
John

Re: Boot question with FC60s

Bill McNAMARA_1 — Mon, 12 Nov 2001 17:57:54 GMT

Yes, it's much the same as using a different disk in a shared jamaica to boot from..

I'm not sure it's supported though, especially for licencing reasons.. you may find that certain apps may not launch if they rely on the swid derived from the uname o/p after switch over...
depends on your app.

Later,
Bill

Re: Boot question with FC60s

harry d brown jr — Mon, 12 Nov 2001 18:16:05 GMT

Well, if you have 4 systems running, and one dies or is stopped (say sysA), why would you want to crash another (say sysB) and boot it (sysB) from the disk of the server that was previously down (sysA)?

You can boot from the FC60.

I guess I'm not clear on your goals here?

live free or die
harry

Re: Boot question with FC60s

John D. Timmel — Mon, 12 Nov 2001 18:24:11 GMT

Seems to me this would be like swapping all of my hardware, and in essence, my "replacement"
machine is now the system that went down.

Would this be any different than if only my CPU module went bad?

Re: Boot question with FC60s

John D. Timmel — Mon, 12 Nov 2001 18:26:36 GMT

Two of the systems are production servers, and the other two are development servers.
All running Oracle.

Re: Boot question with FC60s

harry d brown jr — Mon, 12 Nov 2001 18:48:47 GMT

AH, like Bill said, as long as your software doesn't care, then yes you can do it. Can sysA see the disks of sysB, on the FC60?

I'm from a shop where development is as sacred as "production".

live free or die
harry

Re: Boot question with FC60s

John D. Timmel — Mon, 12 Nov 2001 19:13:11 GMT

Yes, all FC60 devices can be seen by the other system(s). They are all connected through the same Brokade fibre channel hub.
This would only be implemented in an emergency because downtime on the production server is very expensive.
So, until a better solution is implemented (i.e. Service Guard) I'm exploring all of our options.
Thanks Again!
John Timmel

Re: Boot question with FC60s

Sanjay_6 — Tue, 13 Nov 2001 03:29:32 GMT

Hi John

Simply swapping a boot disk from one system to another system will not make the system boot. You need a recovery CD to take you though the boot process.

Here is a link on the boot os supported on FC60.

http://www.hp.com/cposupport/information_storage/support_doc/lpg63000.html

Hope this helps.

Regds

Re: Boot question with FC60s

Alexander M. Ermes — Tue, 13 Nov 2001 06:43:58 GMT

Hi there.
Check this URL :

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x6a7bfd3f91d3d5118ff40090279cd0f9,00.html

Look at the LIFEBOAT script. This is a real goodie.
Rgds
Alexander M. Ermes

Re: Boot question with FC60s

John D. Timmel — Wed, 14 Nov 2001 21:34:16 GMT

Thanks for the responses. I will take a close look at this script.
Also, I'm curious as to why "swapping" drives in this particular situation would not work, as the hardware config in identical on both systems. Does it have something to do with a hardware id or something? If that is the case, is this something that we'd run into would a major system component were replaced?
Again, thanks!