OJFS (VxFS) 3.5 - Compelling Update but...

[Alzhy]

The release notes is puzzling. It says, existing 3.3 users "should not" upgrade if the system will not be using Veritas products, ODM, etc. But this version precisely offers features that i sreally very compelling: ie. forced umounts, vxdump support at the file/directory level.. just toname a few.
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Anyone out there applied the 3.5 update on their prod servers yet? Any issues, gotchas?

[Steven E. Protter]

I have just read through the upgrade guide. I think there are valid reasons to upgrade vxfs. Reliability, throughput, many good reasons.

I would still consider the upgrade.

SEP

[Alzhy]

That's what I am thinking as well. I particularly like the force unmount option which I miss in the HPUX environment. Aside from the performance and reliability improvements I do like the vxdump/vxrestore imporvements -- it can now do file/directory dumps...

[Steven E. Protter]

Nelson,

I just installed the update on my "educational" D320 in the basement(somebody needs a life).

The install went without a hitch and all features that were working before the update appear to be okay now. Everything that was broke is still quite broke.

SEP

[Alzhy]

Thanks SEP.
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The 3.5 Release Notes say:
Intended Audience


Most customers using HP-UX 11i should continue using HP OnlineJFS/JFS 3.3. The VERITAS File System 3.5 (HP OnlineJFS/JFS 3.5) product is not meant to be a replacement or upgrade path for HP OnlineJFS/JFS 3.3.
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You should not upgrade to VERITAS File System 3.5 (HP OnlineJFS/JFS 3.5) unless you need to take advantage of the following products (allVeritas products..)...
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This is rather misleading as HP's claim of "Functionality of VERITAS File System3.5 (HP OnlineJFS/JFS 3.5) is basically equivalent to the HP OnlineJFS/JFS 3.3 version. " is rather misleading. "Basically equivalent?" -- 3.3 does not have what I think is the most important feature of VxFS 3.5 -- forced umounts. Not to mention well over a dozen new features that I think Tru64's AdvFS inclusion in HP-UX would probably have a hard time catching up.

[Alzhy]

BTW, those following this e-mail, the VxFS 3.5 upgrade can be freely downloaded from HP Software depot. If you have the full oJFS 3.3 license, then it will also upgrade the full/advanced features. And here is the link to the various "new and enhanced" features of VxFS 3.5:
http://docs.hp.com/cgi-bin/onlinedocs.py?mpn=5187-1878&service=hpux&path=00/00/7&title=VERITAS%20File%20System%u2122%203.5%20%28HP%20OnlineJFS/JFS%203.5%29%20Release%20Notes

[Tod Wiederholt]

I have been looking to implement this latest release on several of our systems due to the increased performance for systems with a large number of files.

In preparing to do so I also read through the release notes and saw the same warning that this is not considered a valid upgrade path from 3.3. This prompted me to put a call into some technical contacts at HP to find out why this statement is included in the release notes. Their response was that this is a false statement and 3.5 SHOULD be considered a valid upgrade path from 3.3. This resource was an engineer that works in the filesystem development group. She assurred me that there are no concerns in moving forward with the upgrade.

[Alzhy]

Anyone from HP like to comment about this seeming confusion regarding VxFS 3.5? I just re-imaged some of our servers with the DEC2003 HP-UX 11i v1.0 Release and noticed that it is still running OjFS 3.3 (VxFS 3.3). And I forgot to upgrade VxFS to 3.5!

Anyway, would this cause problems because my servers used to run JUN2003 HP-UX11i with VxFS 3.5 on it...


Also, why is it that on my systems with VxFS 3.5 installed, the VxFS 3.5 specific commands (ie.) forced umounts - are NOT in the mainstream PATH? It seems that even if one installs/upgrades to VxFS 3.5, the executables do not replace those of VxFS 3.3 and are stored in /sbin/fs/vxfs3.5 !!!

I also recall attempting to make use of the forced umount option /sbin/fs/vxfs3.5/vxumount but it prevents completion complaining that I don't have a license!! -- whereinfact we're licensed (by virtue of our Enterprise OE) for Online JFS.

With VxFS 3.5 still not part of the latest 11i Release - are we to assume that we are seeing the last days of Veritas' involvement with HP-UX??