How do I clone a system?

[Joe Lupo]

I want to clone the vg00 volume group from one server to another. The source is our production server and the destination will be the new development server. I do not want to copy any other volume groups and I want to make sure the new system gets a new IP address and everything.

[Cheryl Griffin · Accepted solution]

In a perfect situation the hardware will be identical, in which case you can simply make a make_recovery archive from one machine and recover it to the identical machine.

http://www.docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/B2355-90772/00/00/63-con.html

[Pete Randall]

Sounds like a perfect job for Ignite. You can download the Ignite software here

http://www.software.hp.com/products/IUX/index.html

Then run "make_tape_recovery -a /dev/rmt/0mn -I -v -x inc_entire=vg00'". Boot the new server off the ignite tape and you will be lead through an interactive install which will allow you to resize lvols, change IP, hostname, etc.


Pete

[John Bolene]

Ignite is what you want to use. I have made over 150 system clones with it.

Do a make_tape_recovery on the system that you want cloned. Use this recovery tape to boot the systems that you want them to be clones. Do not connect these systems to the lan yet, don't interrupt the process of loading the ignite tape.

At the end of the load, you will want to modify a few things to make this new machine unique. You will want to change the IP, system name, and modify the /sbin/config.d/etherconf file to remove the mac address.

You will need to modify the /etc/resolv.conf file if this machine has a different domain.

Then connect them to the lan.

[Joe Lupo]

What happens if the two systems do not match entirely? Better yet, what if the two machines do not match at all?

We have an rp7410 server 8x875Mhz w/ 6Gb of memory and 2x18Gb internal disks as the production server. The new development system is a J6750 workstation 2x875Mhz with 4Gb of memory and 2x36Gb internal disks.
The production server is also attached to an external array where we have a bunch of data stored that I do not want to clone.


Can I clone these?

[Leif Halvarsson_2]

Hi
If you use the latest Ignite software there is an option "Clone system to a different hardware". Whith this it is possible to clone systems if hardware not matches.

[Joe Lupo]

Would it be a problem to clone a live system? Do I have to bring the main server down?

[Cheryl Griffin]

You won't be able to take an image from a server and restore it to a workstation (nor a workstation image and restore it to a server). The machines are not compatible that way.

In order to make a make_recovery archive the system does not have to be brought down, but there is a WARNING on the make_recovery man page that says the archive should be made when the system is quiet.

[Joe Lupo]

I was under the impression that the new J class workstation was pretty much the same as the rp2470 server (although it does come with faster procs). Both the workstation and the server are based on the PA-8700+ processors at 875Mhz. Hmm.... Well, I'll have to give it a shot and see what happens, just in case. If it doesn't work, then I can always reinstall the OS. :)


Anyway, I'm messing around with this to see if I can do this across the network. Neither the server nor the workstation currently have tape drives attached.

Also, do you know if this will cause any sort of interruption on the server? I want to make sure I'm not going to lose connectivity or anything like that when creating the image.

[Joe Lupo]

Just to let you all know, I was able to successfully clone the server to the workstation. There were some oddities (different hardware and hardware paths) that I had to deal with, but overall it went pretty easily.

Thank you all for your help.