cloning from make_net_recovery onto a different server

[Paul Senior_1]

Hi,

we have a new pre-prod cluster which needs building (4xRX4640's), i.e. imaging from the existing production servers (4xRX4640's)
The existing production cluster is on 11.23 so this is the o/s we need for pre-prod.
All h/w and s/w should be the same - this is the aim.
We have an existing ignite server which contains images of each of the 4 production nodes. It looks like the images were generated from a make_net_recovery cronjob.

My questions are:-
1)we have an image of each of the 4 existing production nodes on the ignite server. Should we image each new pre-prod server with each respective image from the existing 4 production server images OR use 1 production server image for all 4 pre prod nodes?

2)which is the best ignite method?
a) install vanilla o/s from media install and then bootsys the image across from ignite server

OR

b) on a pre-prod node with no o/s currently: at EFI prompt setup a boot entry for ignite serverℑ and boot directly to ignite image (how reliable is this & how easy is it to troubleshoot if it goes wrong?)
Can this be instigated from ignite server?

3) how many licensed products (mirrordisk, serviceguard, etc will notice the change of hardware and require re-validating?)

4) as well as vg-importing across any non-root VG's, what other key steps need to be included to get the servers as close to identical as possible?

5) is it likely/advisable/necessary to use a backup in addition to an image (we can rerun the production server make_net_recovery with whatever flags are necessary to provide the fullest image possible,if necessary)

6) any checks we need to run at any stage of the imaging process which will be vital.

thanks in advance.

[F Verschuren]

Hi if you use one image to restore ore 4 is verry depening on the current status and funktions of the servers, if they are all the same you can go whit one ignite backup. but if you have other users/kernel settings and you are just doing a hartware renual, than it is the easyest way to use all 4 the backups.

2) I normaly boot from the ignite server and install from there (no dubble work)

3) please ask you hp suplyer/reseller...
sometimes you can reuse the old licentie....


4) if you use ignite to install and vgimport to import the luns, the systems wil be the same. (macadresses/serials and uname -i excluded

5) ignite normaly only restore vg00 so if you have more vg on your system aditional backup (just is case of a failure whit the vgimport) will be handy....