Upgrade Version 3 VxFS to Version 4 VxFS

[Ray Terrell]

I need to upgrade of Version 3 VxFS to Version 4 for an HPUX 11.23 IA64 HP server rx6600.

I have looked at the both the commands "vxupgrade" and "vxfsconvert". It looks like I will need to use "vxupgrade" since the file system is already VxFS.

I had never done an VxFS upgrade and I have concerns/questions to avoid corrupting the file system(s).

1) Do I have to unmount the file system?
2) I am assuming I will need to back up the file systems.
3) What special preparations do I need to do before running the "vxupgrade"?
4) What extra space do I need to do the upgrade?
5) What typical problems have people experienced with running "vxupgrade"?
6) How long will the upgrade take?
7) Are there any lessons learned from doing an upgrade like this?
8) Can I do multiple upgrades at the same time?

I do not mean to be too specific, I am just trying to be cautious.

I appreciate any advice that is given.

Ray Terrell

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

Ray,

Follow below links and you will get answers to most of your questions and I would create a full backup and Ignite backup before starting the upgrade.

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/knowledge_base_results.jsp?content=all&SearchTerm=vxupgrade&search=Search+Now

Title: HP-UX 11i Operating Environment - Space and Time Requirements for vxupgrade
Document ID: emr_na-c01043152-1

http://www12.itrc.hp.com/service/cki/docDisplay.do?docLocale=en&docId=emr_na-c01043152-1

Regards,
Robert-Jan

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi ray:

The operation takes just a few seconds. The answers to most of your questions can be found in the manpages:

http://docs.hp.com/en/B3921-60631/vxupgrade.1M.html

I would upgrade to the highest layout version possible for your VxFS version (3.5, 4.1) that will allow you to mount your filesystems on any server you have.

As with any filesystem maintenance, having a backup is never a bad thing, although I have not heard of failures with 'vxupgrade'.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Ray Terrell]

Thank you for your expert advice. I have still have a couple of questions:

1) Can I run the "vxupgrade" command without having to do an unmount or something speical. It seems like all I needed to do was stop any application using the file system and them run the "vxupgrade" command. Then restart the application.

2) I read that no one really had anything problems upgrading from ver 3 VxFS to ver 4.

[Pete Randall]

Ray,

From the man page provided by JRF:

"vxupgrade prints the current disk layout version number for a VxFS file system or upgrades the file system to a new disk layout. vxupgrade operates on file systems MOUNTED for read/write access: mount_point must be a MOUNTED VxFS file system. Only a privileged user can query or upgrade a VxFS file system."


Pete

[Geoff Wild]

You can do this on the fly.

Only caveat - if you mount the file systems on another server (IE a backup server) - then make sure that server is at the same rev or higher.

Version 4? 11.23 now supports version 6 :)

Rgds...Geoff