Move physical disks to another server?

[Daniel McElhiney]

I better first apologize for my HP-UX inexperience. To summarize, I'm trying to boot disks from an rp7420 in my rp5470 test server. They both run 11.11i v1, although slightly different subversions. I made sector-by-sector copies of the rp7420's disks (2 36 gig mirrored drives, made with linux and dd) and when I boot the rp5470 off it's primary disk, I can import and mount the vg. That allows the vg set to be seen as a secondary boot path, but when I boot off that path, it crashes pretty quickly. Boot capture below. I assume that the system state change errors mean it knows what I'm trying to do, and doesn't like it. :)

Is there a process someone can direct me to where I can boot off an OS install CD, and rebuild a kernel that can boot on the rp5470 chassis? The rp5470 is just a test box, so I can do whatever I want here, and with the cloned disks. I'm just not allowed to really touch the production rp7420 (including installing ignite) until I can show what steps are needed and give downtime estimates.

Trying Alternate Boot Path
--------------------------
************* SYSTEM ALERT **************
SYSTEM NAME: uninitialized
DATE: 04/24/2007 TIME: 18:24:08
ALERT LEVEL: 6 = Boot possible, pending failure - action required

REASON FOR ALERT
SOURCE: 8 = I/O
SOURCE DETAIL: 6 = disk SOURCE ID: 0
PROBLEM DETAIL: 0 = no problem detail

LEDs: RUN ATTENTION FAULT REMOTE POWER
FLASH FLASH FLASH ON ON
LED State: Unexpected Reboot. Running non-OS code. Non-critical error detected.
Check Chassis and Console Logs for error messages.

0x0000006086002370 00000000 00000000 - type 0 = Data Field Unused
0x5800086086002370 00006B03 18121808 - type 11 = Timestamp 04/24/2007 18:24:08
A: ack read of this entry - X: Disable all future alert messages
Anything else skip redisplay the log entry
->Choice:a
*****************************************

Boot
: disk(0/0/2/0.2.0.0.0.0.0;0)/stand/vmunix
13262848 + 2949120 + 4785160 start 0x1fabe8

alloc_pdc_pages: Relocating PDC from 0xffff800000 to 0x3fb00000.
gate64: sysvec_vaddr = 0xc0002000 for 2 pages
NOTICE: autofs_link(): File system was registered at index 3.
NOTICE: cachefs_link(): File system was registered at index 4.
NOTICE: nfs3_link(): File system was registered at index 5.

System Console is on the Built-In Serial Interface

************* SYSTEM ALERT **************
SYSTEM NAME: uninitialized
DATE: 04/24/2007 TIME: 18:25:36
ALERT LEVEL: 12 = Software failure

REASON FOR ALERT
SOURCE: 1 = processor
SOURCE DETAIL: 1 = processor general SOURCE ID: 0
PROBLEM DETAIL: 0 = no problem detail

LEDs: RUN ATTENTION FAULT REMOTE POWER
FLASH FLASH FLASH ON ON
LED State: Unexpected Reboot. Running non-OS code. Non-critical error detected.
Check Chassis and Console Logs for error messages.

0xF8E000C01100B800 00000000 0000B800 - type 31 = legacy PA HEX chassis-code
0x58E008C01100B800 00006B03 18121924 - type 11 = Timestamp 04/24/2007 18:25:36
A: ack read of this entry - X: Disable all future alert messages
Anything else skip redisplay the log entry
->Choice:Timeout!
*****************************************

************* SYSTEM ALERT **************
SYSTEM NAME: uninitialized
DATE: 04/24/2007 TIME: 18:25:36
ALERT LEVEL: 12 = Software failure

REASON FOR ALERT
SOURCE: 1 = processor
SOURCE DETAIL: 1 = processor general SOURCE ID: 0
PROBLEM DETAIL: 0 = no problem detail

LEDs: RUN ATTENTION FAULT REMOTE POWER
FLASH FLASH FLASH ON ON
LED State: Unexpected Reboot. Running non-OS code. Non-critical error detected.
Check Chassis and Console Logs for error messages.

0xA0E000C01100B000 00000000 000005E9 - type 20 = major change in system state
0x58E008C01100B000 00006B03 18121924 - type 11 = Timestamp 04/24/2007 18:25:36
A: ack read of this entry - X: Disable all future alert messages
Anything else skip redisplay the log entry

[DCE]

You are better off trying to ignite the production server OS to the the test server - although I am not sure ignite will work between these systems

1. Create an ignite image of the rp7420.

2. use the above ignite image to install the OS the rp5470.

3. Choose the interactive install

4. On the basic tab, select additional, the select clone to different hardware = True

[Daniel McElhiney]

Ahh, thanks. That's what I was afraid of. My top priority is getting ignite working on the rp7420 production server, and this drive cloning process was a lead-up to that.

I did verify that the linux/dd clones are viable and work. I'll just have to propose that we go down again, disconnect from the net, make another clone set, and attempt to install ignite on the clones. If it's successful, then keep pushing forward. We just need a real backup of this all-important server.

[Marcel Burggraeve]

What exactly do you mean with installing Ignite on the clones ?
Are you gonne clone your disks, boot the RP7420 of those clones and then install ignite on them ?
Or are you talking about cloning the disk, importing it on your RP5470 and then try to install Ignite on the cloned disks ?

If the RP7420 is that important it most likely has mirrored disks.
If you wanna be on the safe side you take out one of the mirror disks ( without splitting ) and while the box continues to run ( with a single point of failure for the time being ) you install Ignite on it.
If something does go wrong ( wich is highly unlikely with just installing Ignite ) you can put back the other disk, boot from it and sync your mirror again.

What concerns me a bit is that it seems that your company tries to avoid a possible problem with installing supported and tested software by introducing a workaround with a much bigger risk of something going wrong.
Mixup the if and of in your dd command and your original disk which you just tried to clone has been hosed.