Factory system - flaky setup

[Mike Smith_33]

I recently received two rp3440 systems that should have been identical in every way. HP-UX 11i ver 1was installed at the factory. My issue is this, one of the nodes always seems to have some setting that is wrong. Example, I have found several links that should have been setup that were not. Most things work but I am concerned because this is the failover node for Serviceguard. The latest issue I encountered was trying to switch over to a trusted system. The flaky system gave an error but then allowed me to modify settings. The other system flipped right over. Now I am trying to set up auditing and of course the flaky system is giving me problems where as the other system goes right in.

Any ideas what things I need to look for?
Am I just losing my mind? It's almost like the machine has gremlins.

I am new to HP UX so I am not confident I can find every little issue with this box. Also, it really bugs me not knowing why this is happening.

[Marvin Strong · Accepted solution]

Personally I always rebuild every machine that is sent to me. I have an ignite server for that purpose, that way I know that the machine conforms to the standards for my environment, as far as vg00 layout, default software, and any other standard config changes I make.

From my experience HP also seems to use ignite to build its servers so I don't know why two machines of the same hardware/software requirements would have been built differently.

Personally if your failover node is giving you problems I would just rebuild it from an ignite of the primary node(definately if they are the same hardware), and make what little modifications you need after the rebuild, such as reimported the cluster vgs etc..

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Well, if you are using MC/SG then "new to HP-UX" is not a really good fit. Firstly, I never assume that the factory configuration is any good and so I load from scratch or use a Golden Image (Ignite/UX) from a properly configured identical (or extremely similar) box. My advice is to configure your box (vg's, lvols, kernel tunings, software packages and patches) to match your "good" box. This is really your shortest path to a properly configured system.

[Mike Smith_33]

These were our first HP-UX boxes so there was no previous ignite ux image. The vg, lvol stuff was setup by me and works fine. It has been little things like links that were not set and this issue with trying to turn on trusted system. All the configuration I have done is fine its just these little things that I have been seeing.

[Torsten.]

Hi Mike,

AFAIK HP is setting up the systems by using an ignite image. I guess, thats why ignite exists. To be sure to have 2 identical systems after you modified one, grab a tape drive, do an ignite from the modified system and restore it in interactive mode to the other system. Modify some parameters like hostname and IP addresses. So you will get 2 identical systems.

[Mike Smith_33]

thanks for help.