HP UX File system size issue while upgradation

[Anshumali Rajput]

Hi Guru
Good Morning to all of you
I have one HP server model rx4640 running on HP UX OS 11iv2.It is being used as an oracle 10g database server and more than one version of oracle 10g (instances) are running on this. I have to upgrade it to HP UX 11iv3. As per the HP UX 11iv3 installation and upgrade guide some of the file systems size do not fulfill the space requirement.
My understanding is that in my case at least / /stand and /var file systems do have have the sufficient space to upgrade it to 11iv3. But this volume group vg00 has the enough free space to extent the file system size.
I read out some HP forum's solution and come to know that for increasing the / /stand and swap file systems' size you need to take the ignite make tape recovery and then boot from that tape or media and then you can change the
layout of file systems' size as these file systems' need to be contiguous block and thus it is only the reliable way. Please find the attachment for additional information.

Now my question are:
1) Is it possible to upgrade the OS using the HP-UX upgrade utility so that all the applications and user data would not changed. As per my understanding only cold install is the way to proceed and in this case we have to erase the entire volume group vg00 and recreate the file system (fresh OS install) and in this case obviously we need to reinstall all the third party applications including oracle.
2)If it is possible to upgrade instead of cold install can you let me know the steps (how I can achieve it).
Please let me know if more inputs are required from my side.
Thanks much in advanced.
Kind Regards
Anshumali

[Ganesan R]

Hi Anshumali,

Filesystem size should meet the requirement to upgrade. Otherwise upgradation will fail. You can extend the filesystems online other than /stand, swap /root.

Though there are some ways to extend these /stand and /root filesytems, the prepared way is ignite backup and restore. Since you have enough space you can take ignite tape backup with -I(interactive mode) and modify the filesystem during restore.

Yes. you can very well upgrade the OS using upgrade utility after you met the pre-requiests.

[Anshumali Rajput]

Thanks Ganesan for your reply. I don't have any physical tape drive connected to this server (Backup of this server is taken care by TSM Tape library pool so in this case can I go for make_tape_recovery option for OS (rootvg volume)backup. I think I cannot go for this option by using TSM tape library. I don't have any ignite HP server configured in my environment so in this case How I can achieve it.In this present scenario is it possible to change the filesystem size of / and /stand and upgrade it using hp-ux upgrade utility or not? Or only cold install is the only option to upgrade this server's OS?
I'm expecting more reply and would you mind to help me out.
Kind Regards
Anshumali

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

> 1) Is it possible to upgrade the OS using the HP-UX upgrade utility so that all the applications and user data would not changed.

Yes, an upgrade (update) is used when you have application data or a key configuration on your vg00 and you want to preserve it while uplifting your operating system.

A cold-install requires that you preserve and restore the application environment after your vg00 is built from scatch.

A cold-install is the cleanest method for transitioning between major operating releases like 11.23 to 11.31.

Keeping vg00 confined only to the standard operating system data is the ideal configuration since it offers the most flexability in disaster recovery, cloning and operating system maintenance.

That said, you could have the best of both worlds to solve your problem:

Move your non-standard logical volumes off vg00. Then, while on 11.23 (11iv2) create an Ignite recovery tape (with 'make_tape_recovery'. Rebuild your vg00 using an advanced installation Ignite session. This allows you to resize your logical volumes to your needs for 11.31 (11iv3).

If you must, restore to the newly resized vg00 your non-standard logical volumes. Then, when you are ready, update from 11.23 to 11.31.

Of course, I would still urge you to consider simply moving your non-standard logical volumes to a non-vg00 volume group and cold installing 11.31.

The documentation you need for either a cold-install or an upgrade is here:

http://www.docs.hp.com/en/5992-3364/index.html

Regards!

...JRF...

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi (again):

Well, had I read your response to the first poster, I would have seen that you don't have a tape drive.

Thus, another option is to use DRD to increase the size of '/stand' and then perform your operating system update using the documentation I cited.

To see how DRD would work, see:

http://www.docs.hp.com/en/5992-1913/5992-1913.pdf

Regards!

...JRF...

[Steven E. Protter · Accepted solution]

Shalom,

Fact: Oracle DOES NOT support upgrade-ux as an installation/upgrade method. They recommend Cold install and re-installation of the applications after OS install.

1) Yes, its difficult, not supported and fails more often than not.

2)
-Cold install the OS
-Install patch requirements of Oracle as per Oracle metalink site, checking ITRC patch database for superseded patches.
-Follow a metalink document for installation of Oracle
-Follow a metalink procedure for data migration.

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