possible server upgrade w/ignite as plan B ?

[Manuel Contreras]

We are going to be receiving an 24cpu-8420 box to replace our production 16cpu-8400 box next month.

If all the IO cards, cables, drives, etc...are in the SAME physical location (hardware addresses) on the new box, could I simply bring up production on the upgraded 8420?

Ignite images would be plan B...
thanks,
manuel

[DCE]

I would think that the Ignite option (with clone to different hardware=true) would be the quickest option. you have to restore all sorts of small files to vg00 - /etc/passwd, group, services, your customized start up files, networking info and others.

just be sure to bgexport your data vg's and save the map files to a different server before you ignite.

[Manuel Contreras]

It appears that the internal drives are a different design (between 8400 and 8420).

It seemed like a possible solution for shortening the downtime window of our production env.

I haven't called HP to see if this idea is even supported...

thanks

[Raj D.]

Hi Manuel,

It also depends also what kind of applications are running. Many applications depends on system serial number and MAC address, like MF cobol, ARC view etc. When you change the box to a new box i.e to 8420 both serial no# and MAC# will change.
So you need to take this into the consideration.


hth,
Raj.

[Raj D.]

Hi Manuel,

It also depends what kind of applications are running. Many applications depends on system serial number and MAC address, like MF cobol, ARC view etc. When you change the box to a new box i.e to 8420 both serial no# and MAC# will change.
So you need to take this into the consideration.


hth,
Raj.

[John Guster]

HP normaly loads OS and OE and latest patche bundle before shipping the expensive server out. I think it is good time to build a good system in terms of performance, file system layouts, kernel parameters adjust, memory allocation adjust if more memory is on new servcer, some unfix issues on current production system, it is golden opportunity to improve things......
Besides that, password, group,... some basic configuration files you need copy over to suit your environment.
Ignite sure is another way to do. But new server's beauty disapeared.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Manuel:

While I agree with DCE that an Ignite image will probably work just fine, particularly if your vg00 contains only the standard operating system logical volumes and you 'vgexport'/vgimport' the non-vg00 volumes, I prefer a cold-installation of the new server.

A cold-installation offers you the chance to (re)size your vg00 logical volumes according to your current experience. You also gain the benefit of being able to deploy a current set of patches, given that the standard patch bundles represent the most comprehensive, well tested ones available.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Manuel Contreras]

We would like to maintain existing patch-levels/kernel-parms (initially), as to minimize potential issues with server migration...

May be I'll have our HW vendor perform this migration test in there lab.

It's starting to look like ignite is the best option.

thanks for the replies

[Raj D.]

Manual,

Yes , Ignite would be the good option to keep the software and patch level with the existing server. You can go ahead with the make_tape_recovery tape to install the new server. And after that you can create rest non-vg00 volume groups and restore non-vg00 data.

Cheers,
Raj.