Upgrade 11.00 to 11i

[Ronelle van Niekerk]

I know this question has been asked a million times and I have read all the posts on the topic but I was wondering if people could elaborate a little more.

I would like to UPGRADE our L1000-44 boxes from a very stable and simple 11.00 64 bit OS to 11i.

The boxes don't have many applications running on them, the main one being Omniback 3.5, and that is the only database as well.

The space in the filesystems seems adequate for the upgrade as well, and where space may be needed, it is easy enough to add more.

So, is it really necessary for me to do the cold-install rather than the upgrade?

What are the problems with doing the upgrade, and do you think I would run into any of them with the systems I have described above?

[Rajeev Shukla]

I would suggest you do to a cold-install rather than an upgrade, the reason i have seen is, in upgrade not every fileset is upgraded and so you still have bits and pieces of 11.00 hanging arround.
I'll give you a simple reason..
Say you have a 11i server and you try to install some 11.00 software or applications(i am sure most of them work but some which doesn't work and have a different verison for 11i and 11.00)
and then you upgrade the OS to 11i, but the version of applications and remain the same, where you might have some issues in running that application.
During the upgrade, it only upgrade the OS and not you'r applications which you'll have to take care.
So the best thing would be to take a down time, backup all your data, take a backup of omniback database and then do a fresh install and restore everything.

[James Murtagh]

Hi Ronelle,

To be honest the upgrade path has taken a battering in recent times due to the scale of the changes that had to take place. From 9.x to 10.x - > fundamental filesystem layout changes and possibly thread code etc. From 10.x to 11.x - > transition from 32bit to 64bit etc. The upgrade path from 11.00 to 11i is not too bad if you read the documentation thoroughly :

http://www.docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/5187-2248/5187-2248.pdf

http://www.docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/5187-2774/5187-2774.html

It doesn't need to be said take Ignite backups etc before the upgrade. Also, don't panic if during the upgrade there is a warning or error - consult HP for yet undocumented problems.

However.....you should always strive to keep the root volume group as free from user data as much as possible - this way a cold install can give you the cleanest option and leave you just having to import the non-root volume groups. Normally any specific /etc or other host specific configuration can be restored but consult the release notes first to see if any changes to that subsystem or product have been made :

http://www.docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/5187-3612/5187-3612.html

Cheers,

James.

[Ronelle van Niekerk]

Thanks guys.

I have read the update and installation guide which is shy I asked this question.

Upgrading just seems to be the most straight forward method for these particular servers.
They really do have minimal HP applications running on them. rsync is the only one I can really think of and I can upgrade that seperately if necessary.

I'm assuming 3rd party apps will not need to be upgraded. They have been installed on other 11i machines and work fine.

[James Murtagh]

Its really only the kernel you have to be worried about - HP has always strived to keep user-level code source and binary compatible between all releases. Even pa binaries will run on IA with the Aries emulator. This of course is match harder for the developers but is essential to maintain continuity of code and development effort. However, the release notes are the place to look in case you notice any gotchas in application code. If it really is a minimal OS you should be absolutely fine.

[A. Clay Stephenson]

The upgrade should go smoothly iff (iff and only if) you have enough room in /stand and / --- which unlike the other filesystems can't be upsized readily. If you build your original 11.0 with the default sizes then the upgrade is almost certainly doomed. I always build with a stand of about 160MB and a / of about 200MB and the 11.11 upgrade has yet to fail on those.

A cold install would be the most sure but OB2 makes it a little tricky. First do a swlist | lp to make certain that you have a complete list of OB2 patches. Next, omnisv.sh stop, cd to /, find ./var/opt/omni
./etc/opt/omni -print | cpio -ocBv > /dev/rmt/0m to create a conventional backup of OB2.

Next install 11.11 and the latest GoldQPK. Next install OB2 and all the patches(or equivalents) listed in your swlist. Next, shutdown OB2 via omnisv.sh stop. Just to be safe, back up the new OB2 ./var/opt/omni and /etc/opt/omni using a conventional backup and then restore using your 11.0 cpio backup. Next, omnisv.sh start and you should be good to go.

The one fly in the ointment may be that some of your device nodes may have changed. e.g. what was /dev/rmt/1m might be 2m now but if you haven't added controllers or drives since the original install then all will be the same.

[Steven E. Protter]

Without revealing a lot about your system, the old standby, upgrades have a lot of things that can go wrong is a good thing to think about.

In controlled lab conditions, I've seen one third of upgrades fail in HP's Atlanta education center.

It is not necessary to cold install. You an try an upgrade.

If you have enough boxed, you might try making a golden Ignite image of the box and trying the upgrade under lab conditions.

Whatever you do, do a good make_tape_recovery before you start so you can back out quickly. If the upgrade succeeds, its up to you to put in the latest Gold Pack, plus omniback patches, plus any other patches required by your applications.

Lastly, you'll need a good test plan to insure functionality.

SEP

[Ronelle van Niekerk]

Tank you all.

There are only 4 machines to upgrade and they are in 4 different parts of the country so an Ignite server is not an option.

I am going to test the upgrade on a test server and see how it goes.

[Jakes Louw · Accepted solution]

Here's the 11i upgrade process used at Telkom SA.

[Ronelle van Niekerk]

Thanks Jakes.

I'm assuming your upgrde succeedded without problems?

[Jakes Louw]

Well, 43 out of 44.....
I screwed up on the last one....;->