Online VM Migration from a VMhost with HPVM 4.1 to a VMHost with HPVM 4.2

[David Dilly]

Can we move online a VMGuest from a VMhost with HPVM 4.1 to a VMHost with HPVM 4.2 ?

Thanks for your reply.

David.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom David,

The best way to migrate a system is Ignite.

You take an Ignite make_net_recovery to an Ignite server, then you boot the new 4.2 system off the network Ignite server.

I've also done it with dd.

You do an hpmvcreate, you make sure the disk is sized correctly and you can dd the old system to the new system and then hpvmstart it.

I don't know if this second methodology is supported by HP, but I've done it.

SEP

[David Dilly]

Hi stephen,

Thanks for your reply

But my question is : Can i do an online VM migration with the "hpvmmigrate" command between two VMHost ( one VMHost with Integrity VM 4.1 and a second VMHost with Integrity VM 4.2).

[Vijaykumar_1]

Hello David,

You have to shutdown the guest OS before you execute the hpvmmigrate command.

#hpvmstop
#hpvmmigrate -p -h

Then start it on the new host..

[Vijaykumar_1]

Online migration is possible starting version 4.1, which does not demand shutting down the guest OS.

But you would feel a FREEZE just for seconds.

[Eric SAUBIGNAC · Accepted solution]

Bonjour David,


I am afraid there is yet no answer. Just make a test : afterall with HPVM you can do it easly.

But even if it is possible and even if it seems to work, you should be aware that HP will probably not support this configuration.

Maybe you can use this feature, temporarily, to bring an Integrity VM architecture from 4.1 to 4.2, with minimal downtime, but you should not bet on this for the longtime.

About minimal downtime : in fact, you will have to patch the VM, upgrade AVIO guest layers and upgrade HPVMGuestLibs in order to have it "HPVM 4.2 compliant". Not sure, but probably a reboot will be necessary. In this case you can't avoid a downtime but you could take advantage of the reboot of the VM to start it on the newly installed HP VM4.2 host if you have correctly prepared it ?

You coul also place a call to HP. I know, it is not an exciting answer :-(

Eric

[Cortes Albertino]

Hello,

(I had not yet tested it from v4.1 to v4.2 and back to v4.1; so only based
on what is actually written in docs)


Found from HPVM v4.1 install guide,

chapter 10.*

http://docs.hp.com/en/T2767-90180/T2767-90180.pdf

The VM Hosts must be configured with Integrity VM Version 4.1 or later.
As All the latest HP-UX patches required by Integrity VM, as well as any
required Integrity VM patches for Integrity VM, should be installed.

(See also http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13375_div/13375_div.PDF)



From HPVM v4.2.5 latest releases notes:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/CoreRedirect.jsp?redirectReason=DocIndexPDF&prodSeriesId=4146186&targetPage=http%3A%2F%2Fbizsupport1.austin.hp.com%2Fbc%2Fdocs%2Fsupport%2FSupportManual%2Fc02123997%2Fc02123997.pdf


9.1.1 Online Migration Support
The following list provides the supported online migration paths for HP-UX guests:
â ¢ A V4.2 guest can be online migrated to V4.2.5.
â ¢ A V4.2 guest plus general release patches can be online migrated to V4.2.5.
â ¢ A V4.2.5 guest can be online migrated back only to a configuration comparable to that on
which it was previously booted:
â A V4.2 guest that has been online migrated to V4.2.5 can be migrated back only to V4.2.
â A V4.2 guest also running general release patches that has been online migrated to
V4.2.5 can be migrated back only to V4.2 and the exact same set of general release
patches.
NOTE: For a list of V4.2 general release patches, see the VM Host and VM Guest patch
tables in Chapter 2 of the HP Integrity Virtual Machines 4.2: Release Notes on the BSC
website: HP Integrity Virtual Machines 4.2: Release Notes.
NOTE: Online VM Migration is supported only with HP-UX and OpenVMS guests.

HPVM does not support online migration
of Linux and Windows guests.

9.2 Known Issues and Information
The following sections describe known issues and information from previous releases that still
apply to V4.2.5.
9.2.1 Online Migration Support Limited to System with Compatible Processors
Online migration support among Integrity servers is limited by the processor architecture. Online
migration among servers with processor family 31 is supported regardless of the model number
within that family. Only migration among servers with processor family 32 and model numbers
0 or 1 is supported. Otherwise, online migration is supported only among servers with identical
processor family and model number.
To check if a guest can be migrated to the target VM Host, use the -s option to the hpvmmigrate
command.

[David Dilly]

Thanks for all your reply

See you soon.

Bye ;-)