IVM 3.5 upgrade experiences

[Tim Nelson]

I am looking again to upgrade my 11.23 IVM 3.0 to IVM 3.5.

I am running into a large of notes and pre-reqs for this upgrade and wanted to hear others experiences and review the list of items that need to be done.

1) update to HPUX Dec. 2007 all guests and host.
2) Install all the latest GigEther drivers on host(s)( required by AVIO.. e.g. iether Sept09)
3) Install AVIOstore and AVIOLan on host(s)(required by IVM 3.5)
4) Install current patch bundle all hosts and guests ( e.g. Dec. 2009)
5) Update to IVM 3.5 on hosts. Update vm-guest on guests.
6) update ignite to at least 7.7.93 to support AVIO

Seems like quite a task list if multiplied by 32 guests over 4 hosts.

Any thoughts, recommendations, experiences ?

Thanks in advance.
Tim.

[Torsten.]

Hi Tim,

why not going to version 4.1 directly?


Experiences are here (my question):

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1324010

[Tim Nelson]

Hey Torsten, thanks for the reply,

If I go to 4.1 then I would have to re-install my host to 11.31 ?

My thought then would be to just start over on new hardware. (this could be an option)

Let me read your other post and come back.

[Torsten.]

Maybe the problem on my upgrade was the version 2 at the beginning - who knows.

If possible, I would try to install the host with 11.31 on a new disk (just for fall back) and try to import the guests. IMHO version 4.x is the much better version compared to 3.0 or 3.5.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom Tim,

I'm just learning HPVM 4.0 right now. I highly recommend it. Stable, easy to administer, good on resources.

if I could just (see my latest question) get the darned VM's to start when the hpvm daemon fires up.

SEP

[Turgay Cavdar]

Hi Tim,
I recommend first to install (cold install) hp-ux 11.31 with HPVM 4.1 and follow the "Perform Either a Cold-Install or an Update" in the link:
http://docs.hp.com/en/T2767-90180/ch02s03.html

[Eric SAUBIGNAC · Accepted solution]

Bonjour Tim,

You are speaking of "experiences". Here is mine

I have recently upgraded 2 HP-UX Hosts 11.23 / HPVM 3.0 / MCSG 11.18 to Hosts 11iv3 / HPVM 4.10 / MCSG 11.19

VM's virtual storage was designed with LVM at host level because of the need to mirror (LVM Mirror) everything on 2 SAN EVA

All VM are HP-UX 11.23 June 2007. So no need to update-ux the VM because this release is supported on HPVM 4.10

In a few words, what I did was (I give no detail about MCSG, it should be done with more than few words :-)

+ Fresh install of one host

- move all criticals VM packages to one host, A
- fresh install of host B with a 11iv3 0909 DCOE (HPVM 4.10 and MCSG 11.19 are included in DCOE)
- update AVIOstor and AVIOlan with downlable package
- update host B with latest patches (swainv) and patchset HPVMHost 11.31

+ For each VM :

- import all VG of the VM on node B and use new agile DSF scheme
- create the VM on node B with same virtual hardware addressing than on node A
- start the VM on node B to check it works (you have to boot manually from EFI at virtual console)

- delete the package from node A and add it in the new one node B cluster

- at host level migrate from LVM 1.0 to LVM 2.1 all VG of the VM, but the one that supports vg00 !!! Be aware that in some cases you will have to reduce some LV to acheive LVM migration (vgversion). If the VM's vg00 relies on a reduced LV you will not be able to boot the VM (see this thread : http://forums.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1392503 ).
- start again the VM to check

- update the VM with latest hardware and software patches bundles
- update OnlineDiag
- install Guest avio drivers (storage and network) in the VM
- install vm-guest from Host depot
- install latest patches from swainv and patchset HPVMGuest 11.23

- move virtual storage to avio_stor and network to avio_lan
- start again to check.


+ Fresh install of node A or ignite install with node B image, or whatever you prefer



Migrating from LVM 1.0 to LVM 2.1 is optional, but it would be a pitty you don't

Each time I was migrating a VM from host A to host B, I took before an EVA allocated-on-demand snapclone.

I really had no significant trouble. The main troubles came from MC/Service Guard because I forgot some things before migrating : did not delete from the cluster the reinstalled node, my lock was a disk from a VG (it's now a lun lock), the HPVM Multi-server environment concept ...

Don't know what kind of storage you use, and how many LUN are in use, but one of the most tedious work was to correctly identify each LUN with their agile DSF on each host

If you install others hosts with an ignite image of the first host, be aware of things like the risk of starting the same VM on several nodes ... But when I see your profile, I have no doubt you will take care


Hope this will help you

Eric

[Tim Nelson]

Thanks everyone.. I will take the advise into my planning.

Appreciate all the input!

Tim