HPUX SCSI CLONNING

[GASTON PALACIO]

Does anybody tell me what am I doing wrong?
I have an SCSI drive with a HPUX11, I need to clone it to another scsi disk, same brand and model.
I do not have access to HPUX machine, just the disk. In my linux I have done:
dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb
Every runs properly, but if I restore the disk to his owner, he put again inside his HPUX machine, but it doesn t boot.
Thanks for your collaboration.

[Mel Burslan]

I don't think dd command is capable of replicating a bootable disk. But in case it is, are you sure the original disk is actually bootable right now as you do not have access to a HPUX system, how can you be sure that it still is good ?

[curt larson_1]

the scsi address of the clone will have to set to the what the scsi address of the original drive was set too

[GASTON PALACIO]

Ok, I know that the original scsi disk is running properly in the computer, his owner tell me about that, and I put the correct address back onto the "ghost" disk.
I will try the dd command again, everybody says that it has to do booteable disks.

[Zeev Schultz · Accepted solution]

Well the best way is to do dd, swap out the drive, put it on the second server, do reboot, stop at 'Main menue' (before OS boots).Type 'search ipl', see if second server recognizes your disk (on condition that scsi id doesn't clash with some of scsi ids on the second server). If search ip finds the disk,try to boot from it.If not - put it back to the original server and run set of 'mkboot -a' / 'lvlnboot -r/b/s/d' commands on this disk device file.

rgds,

[Olivier Decorse]

I do the same action some months ago, without any problem.
dd works fine, also with a bootable disk !
Have you try using r device ? (/dev/rdsk/cxtydz).

Olivier.

[V. Nyga]

Hi,

yes it should work.
Can you set blocksize?
In HP-UX for example bs=1024k (or 512k)

good luck
Volkmar

[Cesare Salvioni]

I agree with last answer, dd should work fine if the disks are completly identical.
But if your goal is to replicate a host, why don't you use make_tape_recovery?
This command would work even with different sized disks, is fast, reliable, allow you to make a copy and apply as it is or modify the configuration while installing the new server.
All you need is a tape on both host

[GASTON PALACIO]

I have failed in this work, linux dd command does not clone well the disk, if the owner puts it back on HPUX machine and stops the boot process, search ipl, it does not found any partition with it, so if he boots PRI, he could not do that.
I put the disk back again in my linux and do a "cmp -l /dev/sda /dev/sdb" and there are no differences beteween both disks. ¿What is the problem? Linux can not clone a disk (without mounting it)? I am ver disappointed.
Thanks for all of your comments.
I want to remark that I do not have access to the HPUX machine, just the disk and my Linux.
Regard

[Olivier Decorse]

I just understand what you mean with "i do not have access to the HPUX machine, just the disk and my linux" : you don't have any user account on the HPUX server : the root of it give you the disk, and you're trying to clone them with your linux workstation ...
1) just a simple question : are you sure that the original disk is bootable !!?? With only this disk into the hpux server and in the same place into the server : does the system boot ? Did you try or see that ?
2) If yes, it seems that linux don't do a real copy of the hpux disk : may be a convertion is done : see if any conv=xxx option is set by default on linux (with man dd).
3) the disk has a size : does the dd command return a value "n read and n write", with n=size/blocks modulo the rest ? If not, some area are not realy read/write, for example the boot area, or some blocks are corrupts.
4) a last test : i know that you haven't any access to the hpux, but the dd command can be do by the hpux administrator, in single runlevel, while trying to boot with the second disk ...

Olivier.