Any issues with igniting boot disk rp4440 to another server ?

[Sammy_2]

Is it advisable to make a ignite tape from one rp4440 (HPUX 11.11) test server to another rp4440 prod server (which has more CPU's and more memory) ? ANY ISSUES ? RECOMMENDED or NOT ? And then change the hostname later after ignite is completed building new server.

I have already installed patches, s/w (everything) on my test rp4440 server .

I was thinking of saving time installing OS again and also my test would look a replica of prod .
Thanks

[HGN]

Hi

My personal opinion there should not be any issues,more issues does not really matter, you might run into a few problems like if you have a newer hardware like a new network card and that driver was not there on the old server you might need to add something like that

Otherwise dont see any issues.This will for sure save a you a lot of time, we have done here like that on many RP8420's and RP7420's.

Rgds

HGN

[Simon Hargrave]

Provided the base hardware is the same, I can't see there being a problem. The main problems can be caused by restoring in different hardware, requiring different hardware drivers etc (eg different SCSI, Fibre Channel etc).

Everything else being equal, restoring on a server with a different RAM and CPU count is no different to shutting down the box, adding more RAM and CPUs and starting it up again.

[Simon Hargrave · Accepted solution]

Another thing to consider, if you already have a running OS on the other server, take an ioscan -fn on both systems and compare. You will see easily if there are different interface cards etc to cause problems.

[Mel Burslan]

As simon said, other than some exotic interface cards being existent on the new system to be ignited, I also do not see any problems. As a matter of fact, what you describe is what I usually do when I get a new rpXXXX server in my data center. Much more efficient than doing a manual install and modify each system to our required specifications.

At the worst, you may need to modify kernel, like adding a new driver or bumping up a parameter or two (as the test systems may have lesser needs)

Good luck.

[Sammy_2]

Simon,Mel and HGN I needed some affirmation and i am glad I got it from you all. Actually, I am igniting from one server to another. then make these 2 servers a 2 node test cluster (so h/w is almost same). Any then, I get the ignite tape on one of these test servers and do it on each of the prod. servers (2 nodes cluster as well) .
Simon , I will keep your different interface suggestion in my mind by running ioscan.
Good tips from Mel and HGN.

[Mel Burslan]

Please keep in mind that your single system most probably has the HPUX Enterprise Operating Environment version loaded right now. And since you are talking about serviceguarding the 2 new servers, yo may need the Mission Critical version to be loaded to these systems. For a long time, I have not installed serviceguard as a separate layered product. Hence I am not sure how the mechanics of installing MC-SG over Enterprise OE will work if it does.

So, a better alternative would be to install one of these servers with mission critical OE, create an ignite image and ignite the second one from the new image. Or if you have an image from a server with an MC-OE already, that can be used as well. I know it is a time consuming effort but keeps some wrinkles out of the way in the long run.

[Sammy_2]

Good recommendation Mel. I intend to go with your suggestion below.
"So, a better alternative would be to install one of these servers with mission critical OE, create an ignite image and ignite the second one from the new image."



Makes more sense to me as oppose to weeding out the serviceguard wrinkles later on. Once I have ignited OS/patches/lsof/etc onto second node, then I will add SAN disks to these servers, install and configure S/G on each nodes separately. I agree, S/G portion should be done individually.