How do I clone a system?

[Joe Lupo]

I want to clone the vg00 volume group from one server to another. The source is our production server and the destination will be the new development server. I do not want to copy any other volume groups and I want to make sure the new system gets a new IP address and everything.

[Cheryl Griffin · Accepted solution]

In a perfect situation the hardware will be identical, in which case you can simply make a make_recovery archive from one machine and recover it to the identical machine.

http://www.docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/B2355-90772/00/00/63-con.html

[Pete Randall]

Sounds like a perfect job for Ignite. You can download the Ignite software here

http://www.software.hp.com/products/IUX/index.html

Then run "make_tape_recovery -a /dev/rmt/0mn -I -v -x inc_entire=vg00'". Boot the new server off the ignite tape and you will be lead through an interactive install which will allow you to resize lvols, change IP, hostname, etc.


Pete

[John Bolene]

Ignite is what you want to use. I have made over 150 system clones with it.

Do a make_tape_recovery on the system that you want cloned. Use this recovery tape to boot the systems that you want them to be clones. Do not connect these systems to the lan yet, don't interrupt the process of loading the ignite tape.

At the end of the load, you will want to modify a few things to make this new machine unique. You will want to change the IP, system name, and modify the /sbin/config.d/etherconf file to remove the mac address.

You will need to modify the /etc/resolv.conf file if this machine has a different domain.

Then connect them to the lan.

[Joe Lupo]

What happens if the two systems do not match entirely? Better yet, what if the two machines do not match at all?

We have an rp7410 server 8x875Mhz w/ 6Gb of memory and 2x18Gb internal disks as the production server. The new development system is a J6750 workstation 2x875Mhz with 4Gb of memory and 2x36Gb internal disks.
The production server is also attached to an external array where we have a bunch of data stored that I do not want to clone.


Can I clone these?

[Leif Halvarsson_2]

Hi
If you use the latest Ignite software there is an option "Clone system to a different hardware". Whith this it is possible to clone systems if hardware not matches.

[Joe Lupo]

Would it be a problem to clone a live system? Do I have to bring the main server down?

[Cheryl Griffin]

You won't be able to take an image from a server and restore it to a workstation (nor a workstation image and restore it to a server). The machines are not compatible that way.

In order to make a make_recovery archive the system does not have to be brought down, but there is a WARNING on the make_recovery man page that says the archive should be made when the system is quiet.

[Joe Lupo]

I was under the impression that the new J class workstation was pretty much the same as the rp2470 server (although it does come with faster procs). Both the workstation and the server are based on the PA-8700+ processors at 875Mhz. Hmm.... Well, I'll have to give it a shot and see what happens, just in case. If it doesn't work, then I can always reinstall the OS. :)


Anyway, I'm messing around with this to see if I can do this across the network. Neither the server nor the workstation currently have tape drives attached.

Also, do you know if this will cause any sort of interruption on the server? I want to make sure I'm not going to lose connectivity or anything like that when creating the image.

[Joe Lupo]

Just to let you all know, I was able to successfully clone the server to the workstation. There were some oddities (different hardware and hardware paths) that I had to deal with, but overall it went pretty easily.

Thank you all for your help.

[Bill Hassell]

The problems cloning unlike systems has less to do with the processor and a *LOT* to do with I/O, especially with different interfaces (SCSI, PCI, Fibre, HSC, GSC, and so on). With a *lot* of work, you could create a base system that has all the needed drivers for the target system (even though the base system can't possibly have those types of cards installed) and then clone the result. Of course, the clone may have drivers that are unnecessary because they belong to the base system.

So the short answer is that similar architectures are OK, with caveats when the type of disk I/O is different. The father apart the two systems are in design (read: age and overall design, ie, workstations vs. servers), the more likely the clone will be a lot of problems.

[Steven E. Protter]

As long as the machines are not too different, Ignite can handle the job.

You have the ability to add your own scripts to the installation, which let you set up mirrors, change logical volume structure, even install differing patch sets.

I have done a bunch of identical clones, and a few similar clones and run into every problem in the book.

All of the problems were solved and Ignite is an awesome tool.

SEP

[Joe Lupo]

I am now trying to use Ignite to clone another machine. This time, the hardware is identical (they are a pair of rp2470's), but the install hangs when it is actually loading the image from the first machine. After letting it sit for about 15 minutes, I hit CTRL-C on the console and it failed out. This is what the log says:


* Thu May 01 18:08:41 EDT 2003: Starting archive load of the source
(Recovery Archive).
ERROR: Cannot load OS archive (Recovery Archive)

The configuration process has incurred an error, would you like
to push a shell for debugging purposes? (y/[n]): *
Response was: n

[Joe Lupo]

Nevermind... I think I figured out what the problem was with this one. I forgot that this server was not directly attached to the network switch and actually went through a pair of Alteon switches first (for high availability web servers). I bypassed the Alteons and it is working.

[Steven E. Protter]

So now its not just Cisco switches.

HP NIC's have trouble with auto negotiate on certain switches. This gives Ignite fits.

Best practice is to hard code the desired settings(100 BaseT Full duplex) on the switch port and the NIC in /etc/rc.config.d/hpbtlanconf

ex...

HP_BTLAN_INTERFACE_NAME[0]=lan0
HP_BTLAN_STATION_ADDRESS[0]=
HP_BTLAN_SPEED[0]=10HD
HP_BTLAN_INTERFACE_NAME[1]=lan1
HP_BTLAN_STATION_ADDRESS[1]=
HP_BTLAN_SPEED[1]=100FD



Good luck,

http://www.isnamerica.com
Call me anything you want, but don't forget to call me to dinner.
Steven E. Protter