Activities to be performed prior/post to HP-UX server reboot

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

If you have done nothing to the server, eg, install software,patches and such, you need to do nothing prior to reboot.

A bdf is nice but if your system is stable, get a cup of coffee and enjoy the reboot.

If you have made changes, than an Ignite make_tape_recovery or make_net_recovery is a good idea.

Long ago, I divorced Ignite backups from changes or reboots. I do them once a week, even if nothing has changed. That saves me the trouble of doing a special one before a patch install.

For a simple reboot my checklist is simple:
1) Make sure I know where the last Ignite backup is.
2) Allow myself a cup of coffee (since hpux is so reliable this limits my caffiene intake even with hundreds of servers to support).
3) Enjoy it.

SEP

[AL_3001]

Steven,
The server has been up for 533 days and the SAP team wants a reboot as it has been a long time since the server was last rebooted. We have SAP and Dataprotector running on the server, SAP will be shutdown by the SAP team prior to the reboot and we will shutdown data protector daemons (omnisv stop).

I think once that is done we can go ahead and reboot the server?

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom again,

Wow 533 days, that is impressive.

That means you are nearly two years behind in bi-annual and security patches. This is something that needs to be dealt with.

For now, make sure you have a current backup of the SAP data and a good ignite make_tape_recovery or make_net_recovery

Try and schedule this box some downtime for bi-annual patching, also proceeded by an Ignite backup. If you use oracle as a back end db server, relink it after patching.

SEP

[Pete Randall]

Normally Data Protector will have an automatic shutdown script: /sbin/init.d/omni. This should have been set up when DP was installed. I would expect that SAP would also have automatic start/stop scripts set up in /sbin/init.d but you should definitely check to make sure.

If those are the only two applications running on this machine, then you should be ready to reboot ("shutdown -r") once you are sure they have been shutdown or will be gracefully halted during the shutdown process.


Pete

[Wim Rombauts]

Yes, you can go ahead.

Unless someone has messed with the boot configuration, (quickly check file /stand/bootconf and the output of lvlnboot -v for the correct listing of your boot disks) you can enjoy the cup of coffee :-)

[Wim Rombauts]

Het Steven, relinking Oracle is no longer an issue since 8i, since it uses dynamic libraries from that release on.

[Steven E. Protter]

I beg to disagree. An Oracle relink is necessary if any of the patches touch the compilers that Oracle uses to build its binaries.

If you are two years behind on patching, its likely that is the case. I'd like to see a doc that contradicts this practice which my DBA's continue to use with Oracle 10G.

Always happy to be proven wrong.

:-)

SEP

[Wim Rombauts]

Hmmm, it's beside the point for this thread, but maybe I should take a closer look at your statement.
Until now, I have never relinked my Oracle (9iR2, 10gR2), whatever patches I installed. Maybe I have not yet installed that specific patch that breaks my Oracle (sounds unlikely), or maybe, by not relinking, I am not using the new fixes and features that come with the new patches ? I am going to take a look at this.

[AL_3001]

Hi,
There are no scripts in /sbin/init.d/ to process SAP or Oracle, since the SAP team do not wish to have automated application shutdown or startup at server boot time. They will be getting the SAP down manually before the reboot. The reboot will be done tomorrow, will keep you guys updated :-)

You all have been fantastic. Thanks a million.

[Dennis Handly]

>SEP: I beg to disagree. An Oracle relink is necessary if any of the patches touch the compilers that Oracle uses to build its binaries.

I would disagree your statement. Patching compilers isn't going to make a difference on a relink, since the objects didn't change.

>Wim: I have never relinked my Oracle, whatever patches I installed.

Since HP-UX is binary compatible, there is no reason to relink. Especially if Oracle doesn't tell you to do this.

>I am not using the new fixes and features that come with the new patches?

If you don't have an Oracle patch, it seems that you shouldn't need to relink.