Shipping internal drives between servers

[Michael Steele_2]

Hey:

rp4440
hp-ux 11.11

Anyone have a procedure for writing data to an hot pluggable internal hp drive, removing and shipping the drive cross country and then inserting this drive into another hp server and reading the data?

Please, no responses about nfs, ftp, tapes etc.

[Torsten.]

Only data, not the OS?

Why not creating a VG and a LVOL, wite the data to this lvol and then export the VG?

Now you can vgimport this disk (VG) on another system.

(IMHO this is a job for a tape, because it is made for this and more robust while shipping)

[Matti_Kurkela]

I'm almost tempted to ask "Is this a homework question for HP-UX LVM 101?"

Make the drive into a separate VG that contains only that one PV. For maximum compatibility, use LVM, not VxVM.

Create a single LV that will encompass the entire disk, for simplicity. When you mkfs/newfs it, make sure you use a vxfs version that is readable by the destination host (consider HP-UX version and patchlevel). Use the "-o version=N" option of mkfs if necessary.

Mount the disk anywhere you like. Write data into it.

Unmount, deactivate the VG and export it. Run "sync" for safety, make sure any the access LED of the disk is not lit, then yank the disk.

(Depending on patch level, HP-UX 11.11 may or may not allow you to use "pvchange -a N" to totally stop the disk access in preparation for hot removal. As the VG is deactivated, omitting this step is not crucial.)

Use "rmsf -a /dev/dsk/" to clean up the device node that has gone to NO_HW state.

(The map file is not really needed in a case this simple, and it won't always be possible to transfer it; thus, this procedure won't rely on it.)

Transport the disk to the destination host. Use anti-static packaging for ESD protection and anything suitable for protection against shocks. Multiple layers of bubble wrap are nice.

At the destination, insert the disk, run "ioscan -fnCdisk" and "insf". Note the device name of the disk: it probably won't be the same as on the source host unless your hardware configuration is *exactly* the same.

Pick an unused VG minor number, referring to site documentation and/or "ll /dev/vg*/group" output. Create the /dev/vgNAME directory and the /dev/vgNAME/group device node ("mkdir /dev/vgNAME; mknod /dev/vgNAME/group c 64 0xNN0000"). The VG name does not need to be the same as on the source host.

Run vgimport: "vgimport vgNAME /dev/dsk/". Activate the VG, prepare a mountpoint and mount the disk as usual.

You're done.

MK

[Torsten.]

Matti, this is basically the same what I suggested (but wonderful detailed) - but according to the 0 points Michael doesn't like it.

I don't know why ...

[Michael Steele_2]

Torsten

We've been through this before.

Sitting on the forum all day answering every question that comes in like a chat session response is not a solution. You put no effort into your work and expect points, not going to happen.

Matti

No -s option neccessary?

No reboot needed with a hot pluggable internal drive?

[Matti_Kurkela · Accepted solution]

> No -s option neccessary?

I assume you mean with vgexport/vgimport?

Well, you _can_ use it if you wish... but then you'll have to transfer the VG map file by some other means. If the map file is on the disk you're transporting, you can't get at it before you've imported the VG without it. Which kind of defeats its purpose.

If you do have the map file (created by "vgexport -s -m vgNAME"), the system will automatically find the correct disk device when you'll do "vgimport -s -m vgNAME".

The use of "vgexport -s" does not mandate a corresponding "vgimport -s".

Basically at the vgimport time, you must *either* have the map file (created using vgexport -s) *or* specify the correct disk device.

> No reboot needed with a hot pluggable internal drive?

If a reboot was needed, that would be a pretty useless implementation of "hot pluggable", right?

However, after plugging the disk in, you should wait for it to spin up before running ioscan. 30 seconds to one minute should be plenty of time.

MK

[Michael Steele_2]

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