alternate root on Itanium based SuperDome

[Piotr Wyrostek]

I know (approximately) the procedure to create an alternate boot disk (or a mirror of the boot disk), but I am not sure if Itanium Superdome uses EFI or LIF to boot (that is, if
I should use mkboot -e to transfer boot files to boot partition). Thank you very much in advance for answers.

[Steven E. Protter]

Just for your reference, I'm providing a copy of my PA-RISC procedure. The only part you need to check is EFI versus LIF and I can't help you with that.

Its good to have a blueprint that worked. Perhaps someone can modify it so the forum has access to an Itanium version of my work.

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pvcreate -B /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0 #use real disk

mkboot -l /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0
mkboot -a "hpux -lq (;0)/stand/vmunix" /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0 # use real disk


# mkboot -b /usr/sbin/diag/lif/updatediaglif -p ISL -p AUTO -p HPUX -p PAD -p LABEL /dev/rdsk/c?t?d?

If you are running 64-bit OS:

# mkboot -b /usr/sbin/diag/lif/updatediaglif2 -p ISL -p AUTO -p HPUX -p PAD -p LABEL /dev/rdsk/c?t?d?


vgextend /dev/vg00 /dev/dsk/c1t0d0 # same thing
lvextend -m 1 /dev/vg00/lvol1 /dev/dsk/c1t0d0

# real disk. repeat for other lvols

lvlnboot -r /dev/vg00/lvol3 # root fs /
lvlnboot -s /dev/vg00/lvol2 #swap
lvlnboot -d /dev/vg00/lvol2 #swap/dump
lvlnboot -b /dev/vg00/lvol1
lvlnboot -R
lvlnboot -v
setboot
setboot -a 52.1.0 # second disk
----

Good Luck,

SEP

[Thomas Blaumoser]

The Itanium Superdome use EFI...

In the case you has a new disk, you have to create 3 partitions on the disk.

1. EFI --> for the EFI (/dev/rdsk/c#t#d#s1)
2. HPUX --> for HPUX (/dev/rdsk/c#t#d#s2)
3. HPSP --> for the Offlinediagnostic (/dev/rdsk/c#t#d#s3)

At first we create the partitions on the new disk, be sure the disk is not in use!

1.) Create a file with follow entries:
3
EFI 500MB
HPUX 100%
HPSP 400MB

2.) Use the "idisk" command to create the partitions:

idisk -wf /tmp/partitionfile /dev/rdsk/c#t#d#

3.) Create new device files for the new partitions:

insf -e -Cdisk

4.) Format the EFI partition and copy the EFI files to the disk:

mkboot -e -l /dev/rdsk/c#t#d#

Check the EFI files with

efi_ls -d /dev/rdsk/c#t#d#s1

5.) Initialise the LVM Partition(s2) and add it to vg00:

take care to use /dev/rdsk/c#t#d#s2 !!!

pvcreate -B /dev/rdsk/c#t#d#s2
vgextend vg00 /dev/dsk/c#t#d#s2

6. Now you can mirror the LVols in the same way as on a PA-RISK System.

[Dietmar Konermann]

See the procedure in:
http://www.itrc.hp.com/service/iv/docDisplay.do?docId=prodITRC/DE_SW_UX_swrec_EN_01_E/Itanium.pdf

[Piotr Wyrostek]

Thank you all very much for your excellent
answers, especially Mr. Thomas Blaumoser.
The procedure generally works and the system
boots from the alternate disk (I prepared
alternate boot disk (vg00bkp and lvols1-10),
because I do not have MirrorDisk yet.)
The only problem is with 'lvlnboot -c' in /sbin/ioinitrc, which, in spite of booting from vg00bkp, tries to query physical
volume of vg00.

lvlnboot -v output is:

Boot Definitions for Volume Group /dev/vg00:
Physical Volumes belonging in Root Volume Group:
/dev/dsk/c2t0d0s2 (0/0/11/1/0.0.0) -- Boot Disk
Boot: lvol1 on: /dev/dsk/c2t0d0s2
Root: lvol3 on: /dev/dsk/c2t0d0s2
Swap: lvol2 on: /dev/dsk/c2t0d0s2
Dump: lvol2 on: /dev/dsk/c2t0d0s2, 0

Boot Definitions for Volume Group /dev/vg00bkp:
Physical Volumes belonging in Root Volume Group:
/dev/dsk/c1t10d0s2 (0/0/10/1/0.10.0) -- Boot Disk
Boot: lvol1 on: /dev/dsk/c1t10d0s2
Root: lvol3 on: /dev/dsk/c1t10d0s2
Swap: lvol2 on: /dev/dsk/c1t10d0s2
Dump: lvol2 on: /dev/dsk/c1t10d0s2, 0

However, during boot (from c1t10d0), I get:

/sbin/ioinitrc:
lvlnboot: Warning: couldn't query physical volume "/dev/dsk/c2t0d0s2":
The specified path does not correspond to physical volume attached to this volume group.


Looks like an error in lvlnboot, but maybe
there is a place I should put he information
about c1t10d0 (I've already modified /stand/bootconf (vg00bkp/lvol1) to:

l /dev/dsk/c1t10d0s2,

but it does not help).

Regards

Piotr Wyrostek

[Dietmar Konermann]

Piotr,

ioinitrc calls lnlnboot -c without VG argument. So the command walks through lvmtab until it finds the right root VG. The warning message appears when the root VG is not the 1st one listed in lvmtab. To get rid of it, you could either modify ioinitrc (not recommneded) or change the order of the VGs in lvmtab, e.g. using vgexport/vgimport from LVM maintenance mode.

Best regards...
Dietmar.