Itanium Boot Mirror Setup

[Kevin Westover]

Does anyone have a good reference document for setting up a mirror for the boot disk on an Rx (Itanium) server?

Thanks.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Kevin:

See appendix-A of "When Good Disks Go Bad: Dealing with Disk Failures under LVM":

http://www.docs.hp.com/en/5991-1236/When_Good_Disks_Go_Bad.pdf

Regards!

...JRF...

[Prashanth.D.S · Accepted solution]

Hi Kevin,

This is what I follow, very accurate and straight forward...

1. From HPUX, use vgdisplay to identify the disk that is in vg00. Use
ioscan to find the spare disk.

# vgdisplay -v --> vg00 is on /dev/dsk/c2t1d0s2 in this example
# ioscan -efunC disk --> Let's assume c3t2d0 for this example

2. Create the system, OS, and service partitions.

# cat </tmp/partitionfile
> 3
> EFI 500MB
> HPUX 100%
> HPSP 400MB
> EOF
# idisk -wf /tmp/partitionfile /dev/rdsk/c3t2d0
idisk version: 1.31
********************** WARNING ***********************
If you continue you may destroy all data on this disk.
Do you wish to continue(yes/no)? yes <-- Answer "yes" and not "y"

3. Create device files needed for the new partitions.

# insf -eC disk

4. Verify the partition table.

# idisk /dev/rdsk/c3t2d0

5. Verify that the device files were created properly.

# ioscan -efnC disk --> c3t2d0 is 0/1/1/1.2.0

6. Initialize the efi partition for use.

# efi_fsinit -d /dev/rdsk/c3t2d0s1

7. Populate the /efi/hpux/ directory in the new EFI system partition.

# mkboot -e -l /dev/rdsk/c3t2d0

8. Change the auto file for the mirror to boot without quorum.
NOTE: Using "s1"

# echo "boot vmunix -lq" > /tmp/AUTO.lq
# efi_cp -d /dev/rdsk/c3t2d0s1 /tmp/AUTO.lq /EFI/HPUX/AUTO

NOTE: We assume that if we boot from the primary, the mirror is fully
functional and therefore we don't need to override quorum. Your site
might require that both disks override quorum.

9. Verify the contents of the auto file on the primary and the mirror.
NOTE: Using "s1"

# efi_cp -d /dev/rdsk/c2t1d0s1 -u /EFI/HPUX/AUTO /tmp/AUTO.pri
# efi_cp -d /dev/rdsk/c3t2d0s1 -u /EFI/HPUX/AUTO /tmp/AUTO.alt
# cat /tmp/AUTO.pri
# cat /tmp/AUTO.alt

10. Add the new partition to vg00.
NOTE: Using "s2"

# pvcreate -fB /dev/rdsk/c3t2d0s2
# vgextend vg00 /dev/dsk/c3t2d0s2

11. Mirror all logical volumes in vg00.
NOTE: Using "s2"

# lvextend -m 1 /dev/vg00/lvol1 /dev/dsk/c3t2d0s2
# lvextend -m 1 /dev/vg00/lvol2 /dev/dsk/c3t2d0s2
# lvextend -m 1 /dev/vg00/lvol3 /dev/dsk/c3t2d0s2
.
.
.
# lvextend -m 1 /dev/vg00/lvol8 /dev/dsk/c3t2d0s2

12. Add the new disk to /stand/bootconf.
NOTE: Using "s2"

# echo "l /dev/dsk/c3t2d0s2" >> /stand/bootconf

13. Verify that the new disk was added to vg00, and the lv's are in sync.

# vgdisplay -v vg00

14. Verify that the BDRA was updated properly. Take note of the HW paths for
step 15.

# lvlnboot -v

15. Add EFI primary and high availability boot path menu entries.

# setboot -p 0/1/1/0.1.0 <-- Set primary disk
# setboot -h 0/1/1/1.2.0 <-- Set mirror disk
# setboot -b on <-- Set autoboot on

16. Verify that the primary and mirror boot paths are configured properly.

# setboot

17. Test the new mirror by booting off of it.

# shutdown -r -y 0

18. Select "HP-UX HA Alternate Boot" to test the mirror.

EFI Boot Manager ver 1.10 [14.61] Firmware ver 2.21 [4334]
Please select a boot option
HP-UX Primary Boot: 0/1/1/0.1.0
HP-UX HA Alternate Boot: 0/1/1/1.2.0
EFI Shell [Built-in]

20. Verify which disk/kernel you booted from.

# grep "Boot device" /var/adm/syslog/syslog.log
vmunix: Boot device's HP-UX HW path is: 0.1.1.1.2.0

21. Remove temporary files.

# rm /tmp/partitionfile /tmp/AUTO*

Best Regards,
Prashanth

[melvyn burnard]

Take a look at pages 634-637 of:
http://docs.hp.com/en/B2355-90950/B2355-90950.pdf

[Eric SAUBIGNAC]

Hi Kevin,


No more suggestion after the Prashanth.D.S's detailed answer.

So in attachment you will find a little gift: a script I use to make all mirror of my client's HP-UX systems. I use it frequently and it works pretty well.

You have to edit 2 variables at the beginning of the script: SRC, which should point the source disk already in vg00 (I know, i know : i could find it automatically !), and MIR, which should point the mirror disk you want to add.

It works on PA-RISC or ITANIUM all versions 11.X ... except with 11iv3 for the moment.

Comments are in french ;-)

Hope this will help

Eric

[Pete Randall]

Probably no different than the previous suggestions, but here is yet another guide:

http://docs.hp.com/en/B2355-90950/ch06s02.html#cchgjafa


Pete

[Tim Nelson]

And just because there seems to be a plethera of places.

Knowledge Base ID: emr_na-c00865281-1

[Kevin Westover]

Thanks for everyone's help with this. I now have what I need. Take care.

Kevin