Replace internal 36gb with 72gb N Class

[Dave La Mar]

Scenario:

1. We have two RP7400 machines running 11.0.
2. We are in the planning stages of moving to 11.i in a May/June time frame.
3. Due to the changes in size of some of the root volume groups we will need to install larger drives.
4. Currently we are looking at 72gb drives. (146 drives are not necessary as we most likely will upgrade the servers prior to requiring more space.

Questions:

1. Has anyone done this change that would be willing to share a game plan and any notes of "gotchas"?
2. Assuming we install the new disk as a third mirror, I would expect that we would have to ignite the drive for vg size changes. (Y/N)
3. As per #2 is there a better way to perform what we require?

All insight appreciated.

Regards,

-dl

[Pete Randall]

Dave,

Unless I'm missing something here, I would think you would just install 11i directly onto the new drive, rather than making it a third mirror.


Pete

[Steven E. Protter · Accepted solution]

Shalom,

Since you are adding disk space to the servers, I recommend the following procedure:

1) Install 11i into the new disk, while maintaining the old disks in the system.
2) Set your filesystem sizes to cover a long time at 11i.
3) Install applications, migrate data.

1. The real gotcha is the upgrade. upgrade-ux has produced fairly poor results for me in the lab. So much so, that I never used it in the field. I will answer questions 2 and 3 on the basis that this mirror situation will be done with Ignite 11.00 to 11.00.

2. Ignite has an interface for intervention and changing filesystem sizes as part of the process. You see a prompt, hit a key at the console and make your changes.

3. See above.

SEP

[Dave La Mar]

Pete -
The plan is to have the hardware in place long before the upgrade in order to reduce the down time expected on the upgrade.

SEP -
In your first three steps, are you saying to install the third drive but not as a mirror and then make the file systems sizes accordingly.

Sorry, you are talking with a real "must be spelled out imbecile" here.

Additionally, we have heard many horror stories on upgrade versus cold install. That said, we have extra TSC days we are using to engage HP people that specialize in performing the upgrade.


-dl

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom Dave,

You seem to have a pretty good basis for beginning and I sense no lack of ability on your side of the keyboard.

To clarify.

Cold install, sure and true. Avoid upgrade-ux like the plague.

If you need to migrate to the 72 GB drives now, then use the Ignite plan. Make an Ignite backup and while restoring, use the interface ignite provides for keyboard intervention. This will let you migrate your 11.00 systems to a larger root file system.

That step will make the eventual cold installation of 11i without actually changing the lvm structure.

Things to consider:
1) How much more space your applications will require and where they will be installed.
2) Sufficient space for the /var filesystem. Logging is ehhanced with more options in 11i and you have more products you can install with logs. Also consider taking as print spooling recommendations, Bill Hassell's recommendations which in 2004 were to mount a special filesystem for print spooling. That way if the print spool fills up /var does not and the system continues to run.

To get to the end game, which is 11i on the 72 GB disks, I recommend:

1) Install the 72 GB drives and use Ignite to migrate the 11.00 systems to the bigger disks.

2) Cold install of 11i into these migrated systems at the date of your choosing, one system at a time to prevent production outage.

If you have the time for one of the systems to be up and down, you can try a cold install of 11i to the new disks and migrate your applications and data to the new 11i boot disks. You'll still be able to book back into 11.00 on the 36 GB disks for needed migration steps. The feasibility of this option totally depends on the applications to be migrated. Installing the OS patches and all should not take more than 4 hours on those speedy systems.

Hope this clarifies. If not, post again, I'll keep trying.

SEP

[Dave La Mar]

Got it SEP, thanks. Makes perfect sense to ignite 11.0 onto the new disks interactively.

I am not opposed to a cold install, though we have about 3+ applications on each that are in the root fs, i.e. measureware, veritas, batch processing scheduler, etc.

FYI, will be assigning points when I feel the thread is ready to close.

-dl

[Dave La Mar]

Gee, I really thought I would get bombarded with answers. Guess it was too obvious for most.
Pete -
Object is to be a ready for the install as possible prior to the actual date in order to reduce down time. Replacing the disks was a pre-req.

SEP -
I have been through several docs that recommend as you have. Looks like we'll go with replacing the drives, ignite back in interactive to set the lvols as needed for the 11.i installation, finish ignite restore and continue to run on 11.0 until ready for the install.
I am now leaning towards the cold install as most of the apps are on tape and can be easily restored and in some cases can be selectively restored with the final 11.0 ignite tape.

Thanks Pete & SEP for the valued input.

Best regards,

dl