How to create an alternate boot disk for an rx7620

[John King_12]

Hi,

I am attempting to set up some type of redundancy for an rx7620 which I currently manage. The system does not have any hardware mirroring. Also I do not have o/s mirroring.
I understand that this process is slightly different for the Itanium. I have the rx connected to both an Hitachi and EMC san. I am in the process of configuring an Hitachi Lun as my alternate boot disk. I have managed to create the three partitions on the Hitachi Lun. i.e. /EFI/HPUX/AUTO as well as device files cxtydzs1, cxtydzs2, and cxtydzs3. I have just finished mkboot -e -l /dev/rdsk/cxtydz as well as populating the AUTO file from my original boot disk via efi_cp -d /dev/rdsk/c0t6d0s1 -u /EFI/HPUX/AUTO /tmp/Auto.pri.

Now I am at a loss as to what to do next. I considered dd'ing c0t6d0s2 to cxtydxs2 but I am positive I am missing a step i.e lif area etc.

If someone has done this before, if at all possible, could you supply me with the exact step by step procedure to accomplish this.
Full points will be awarded to the answer that produces the best results. Please note, this is not high priority so if there are more critical posts that you are trying to solve please continue. Thanks in advance and have a great weekend!
FYI, as stated I am using an rx7620 running HP-UX v2 B11.23 with June or July 2005 patch bundles installed.

Regards,

John K

[Torsten.]

Hi John,

normally a mirror on the internal disks should be good enough.
You wrote you don't have OS mirroring. I assume you have a licence for mirror/ux (LVM mirroring), so you can mirror your disks. if not, you have to transfer your files from the internal disk to the array. best way to do this is a backup using ignite and restore. this is really better than just doing a dd.
So what's the problem?
Do you want to know how to mirror the disk or how to "change" the boot disk from internal to external without mirroring?

[John King_12]

Hi Torsten,

By o/s mirroring I ment no lvm mirroring or veritas!

Regards,

John K

[Torsten.]

So I guess you want to use an array lun as your boot device. I'm not sure if your array is supported to boot your system from. Someone have to clarify this.

But you can try this. Create a LUN, make it visible to the system and create device files (e.g. c3t0d3).

prepare the disk partitions, create a file (e.g. /tmp/pfile) with this content:

3
EFI 500MB
HPUX 100%
HPSP 400MB

create partitions:
idisk -wf /tmp/pfile /dev/rdsk/c3t0d3

create device files c3t0d3s1...s3 and init the EFI area:
insf -e -Cdisk
efi_fsinit -d /dev/rdsk/c3t0d3s1

make the disk bootable:
mkboot -e -l /dev/rdsk/c3t0d3

now your disk is ready.
best way to move the data from the internal disk to the array is to backup the vg00 using ignite, shutdown, boot from installation dvd and restore the backup to the new disk.
make sure to configure boot/root/swap devices.

# lvlnboot -r /dev/vg00/lvol3
# lvlnboot -b /dev/vg00/lvol1
# lvlnboot -s /dev/vg00/lvol2
# lvlnboot -d /dev/vg00/lvol2

configure also your primary bootpath (see man setboot)

HTH!

[John King_12]

Hi Torsten,


An Ignite image is not an option as it will only boot into a recovery shell/Installation menu.

Here is the desired result.

1) Os disk dies. System crashes
2) I want to just point it to the alternate boot disk (san) and boot it.

I do not want to have to go through any recovery shell! I am familar with the ignite process. I have set this same scenerio up on an rp7410 running HP-UX 11i vi B.11.11. If my bbot disk dies, I just point it to the san disk and boot it. It works fine. But the process is not the same for an rx7620 due to the partitions on the boot disk used by the Itanium Processor. I have already done up to the lvlnboot part of your procedure. I must verify before I go any further. On the rp7410 I used dd. I just want to make sure I have covered all the bases.

Regards,

John K

[Torsten.]

I want to say you should use ignite instead of dd to transfer the data to the new disk. This is a safe and working way to do this.
This is a one time procedure unless you are changing data on one disk.
Once the data is transferred, you may boot the internal or external disk at any time.

[John King_12]

Hi Torsten,


I would agree that the Ignite method would be safer and far easier, but unfortunately this is a production system and the downtime for the Ignite process is not an option at this point. The data has to be transfered or copied online.

Regards,

John K

[Torsten.]

If you want to do a dd you have to make sure your lvm config is valid on the "new" disk. since there is a different hw path to the device, you have to go the lvm maintenance mode and vgexport/import the "new" vg00 within the array.

I would not rely on that without a test.

Again, I'm not sure if your system is able to boot from the array, even the disk is properly copied. It's a question of support.
Why not install mirror/ux on your productive servers? Or just copy the disk to another "spare" internal disk and swap them in case of emergency.

[John King_12]

Hi Torsten,


As I stated before, I have done this same procedure on an rp7410 without having to bring the system down. The rp was in production as well. There was a script on of the members posted. I used the commands from the script. The rx is just a bit diferent in that respect. The reason we do not have lvm mirroring or veritas or online jfs is due to budget.

Regards,

John K