upgrade from 11.00 to 11.11 has left server unbootable

[Scott Dunkley]

Hi guys,

just upgraded one of our L clas servers from 11.00 to 11.11 and it has now left the server unbootable. the install appeared to work ok and as part of the process the system rebooted but wont come back up, it just keeps booting and stating an Alert level 12 software error.

Any ideas what might have happened?

[Steven E. Protter · Accepted solution]

Shalom Scott,

What happened is you have become the victim of an unreliable upgrade process.

In my testing experience the 11 to 11i upgrade works around 50% of the time. The more complex your system is, the lower your chances of it working.

Anything can trigger this problem, including inconsistent SD-UX patch database, corrupt patches or applicatoins.

Hopefully you have a make_tape_recovery or make_net_recovery backup of your system available to get it running again.

Options:
1) Call Response Center for help(Software contract required)
2) Cold isntall the 11i OS and re-install correct versions of all applications.

SEP

[Deoncia Grayson_1]

I hope you took a full system backup before you perform your upgrade, because now you will have to do a cold install of the operating system.

I was a victim of an upgrade gone wrong and now I know not to trust doing an upgrade, but just go straight for the cold install. It saves a lot of time and energy.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Scott:

Consider opting for a full cold-installation of 11.11 on your server. This gives you the opportunity to resize your vg00 logical volumes to better accomodate your needs. It also eliminates any 11.0 vestiges without work.

You will probably find in the long run that the investment taken to do the cold-install is far faster than battling issues that might arise from the upgrade path. At least you can eliminate that parameter from any problem diagnosis.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Scott Dunkley]

thanks guys, I suspected as much.

In playing around I have found that the system is complaining about "Legacy PA hex chasis codes". Mean anything?

I have managed to get the system start by using the system.prev file that was craeted when the upgrade rebuilt the Kernel. System is showing as 11.00 not 11.11 though. Is there anything I can try now the system is up again?

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Before you did the upgrade, did you check the firmware level? It sounds as though you may have missed a prerequisite firmware upgrade step before you upgraded the OS. That would explain what you are seeing.

[Scott Dunkley]

You may be onto something with the firmeware thing. Got an ignite backup from Monday so restoring now and will check all firmware revisions etc.

Thanks for your time.

[Steven E. Protter]

The upgrade instructions must be followed very precisely, especially firmware an pre-requesite patching(if there is that), otherwise the chances of success drop dramatically.

Do you have a backup?

Even if you can make the upgrade work JRF is right, the cold install is a better idea.

SEP