query regarding DD command

[Tata Consultants]

Hi,

I have a to clone the primary boot disk of one of my vPars. Is 'DD' appropriate for the task or not? My main concern is whether 'DD' will copy the data of Boot Area.

I want to use the cloned disk as the primary boot disk of another vPar.

I'm asking if this would work.
dd if=/dev/rdsk/c1t2d0 of=/dev/rdsk/c2t2d0 bs=1024

Regards,
Ashutosh Singh

[Torsten.]

IMHO it is much better to use an ignite golden image.

[Pete Randall]

Clay Stephenson always swore but what he called a "lifeboat", which was a dd'd copy of the root disk that he could swap in in case of failure. Try googling "lifeboat +site:itrc.hp.com"


Pete

[vishnu.khandare]

Hi Ashutosh,

U have two other options such as Ignite image of OS, take ignite and install that ignite on the targeted disk on required vpar.
Other one is U can mirror the disk to this root disk if u want exact replica of this disk.

Hope this solves ur query.
Don't forget to assign points.


Regards
Vishnu Khandare

[Zinky]

AS,

YES you can. And YES it will copy everything - even the "BOOT area".

We do this quite regulary in cloning systems. A 36 GB OS Disk using a bsize of 1024k (please use this or even 4096k) can be done in about 20 to 30 minutes. We have also in the past done a dd accross the network.

And to make use of this dd-copy disk on a different vPar or physical server simply have a copy of your vg00's (or however you name your OS LVM group) mapfile somewhere on the disk before you dd copy. In my config, my OSes always dump vg00.map to /.dr/vg00.map so it will always be available. And the steps to "re-settle" this cloned OS disk on another vPar or physical server is as follows:

1.) Boot the disk path in LVM maintenance mode "-lm"
2.) Login if OS is a secure boot environment
3.) ioscan, insf... etc
4.) determine the cXtYdZ value of your disk (pick one cXtYdZ if it is a SAN Boot disk)
5.) vgexport vg00
6.) create vg00 group dir and node file
7.) vgimport the disk using the vg00.map file from earlier
8.) vgchange... fsck all rlvols
9.) do your lvlnboot gyrations
10.) mount salient filesystems
11.) Edit networking, hostname, fstab, other needful configs, etc, etc.
12.) Boot your cloned OS on your new vPar or server.

Enjoy!

[Pete Randall]

Sorry, just re-read my posting:

Should have been "Clay swore by" not "swore but".


Pete

[Zinky]

AS,

If this environment is on an 11i v3 (aka 11.31) - then you may just want to go the route of using DRD tool. Far easier.

Also, IF your OS disks are on a SAN Array - you can use your array's snapshot or hardware clone facilities to do the same. but the above procedure you will still need to follow to "re-settle" your OS disk.

FWIW.

[Tata Consultants]

Hello All,

Thanks for all the answers.
What I exactly want is a plug and play Hard Disk with HP-UX.
It simply means:
1. My OS is on vg00 and it has single Hard Disk /dev/disk/disk1.
2. Now I cloned the Hard Disk to another one /dev/disk/disk2 with "DD" (removing it from vpar and keeping it as backup).
3. Then my vPar crashes.
4. Then I physically replace /dev/disk/disk1 with /dev/disk/disk2.
5. Now I want that the server should be fully up when I specify in the boot path the new disk' address.

Actually I can't try this at my Datacenter, so any comments will be appreciated.

[Pete Randall]

Here are some of the many results from googling for "lifeboat":

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1060083
http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1171951
http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1083682
http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=51838

Pay particular attention to Clay Stephenson's postings.


Pete

[Zinky]

Sir,
The fact that you obviously are on HP-UX 11.31 means whatyou NEED is simply DRD (or Dynamic Root Disk) sir.

Read all aboout it: http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/w1/en/os/hpux11i-system-management-dynamic-root-disk.html


It is SOOO easy.

Let us know if you need to be walked through and we'llgive you actual, blow by blow on how it is used sir.