Viosupgrade Tool Enhancements on VIOS 3.1.4.60 & 4.1.1.10

1 Introduction:

The viosupgrade tool is used to upgrade VIOS systems from older versions to newer ones. With version 3.1.4.60, several new features have been added to make the upgrade process simpler, faster, and more reliable. This blog will walk you through those new features, especially if you're upgrading from VIOS 3.1.4.60 or later.

For a detailed overview of how the upgrade process works and a complete list of features, please refer to the blog viosupgrade.

All options available in standalone viosupgrade are now fully supported in NIM-based altdisk operation.

For more details on syntax and help, refer to the viosupgrade command.

2 List of new features

2.1 Single-step upgrade using ISO image

With the -i option, you can pass the ISO image name directly to the tool.

viosupgrade -l -i dvdimg.iso -a hdisk1

2.2 Use -F forcecopy to copy files to their original system paths

You can now control where your backup files go:

• -g <file>: copies files to /home/padmin/backup_files.
• -F forcecopy=<file>: copies files to their original paths on the new system.

viosupgrade -l -i ios_mksysb.img -a hdisk1 -g file_list1 -F forcecopy=file_list2

2.3 -noprompt Option for automated upgrades

Use -noprompt to avoid answering upgrade prompts manually:

• If passed alone, all prompts are answered “Yes” by default.
• You can also provide custom answers, e.g., -noprompt additionalfs=Y,skiplv=N.

viosupgrade -l -i ios_mksysb.img -g file_list1 -F forcecopy=file_list2 -noprompt additionalfs=Y -a hdisk1

2.4 Migration of user HOME data

During the viosupgrade process, all user-created accounts along with their respective home directories are migrated from the old rootvg to the new rootvg, including the padmin user.

2.5 To skip the Security Configurations

If, for any reason, the user wants to skip the restoration of all the security configurations, -skipsecfg can be passed with the -F option.

2.6 Mounted paths

2.6.1 Upgrade summary includes mount points

The mount points on the current rootvg are excluded from migration during the viosupgrade process. These excluded mount points will be clearly listed in the upgrade summary.

2.6.2 Exclude mount paths listed under -g option

If any mount points are included in the list of files specified using the -g or -F forcecopy:<file> options, they will be excluded from migration during the viosupgrade process. These skipped mount points will be clearly reported in the upgrade summary.

2.7 Mirrored rootvg upgrade support

In earlier versions, upgrading from a mirrored rootvg using viosupgrade was not supported and would result in a failure. This limitation has now been addressed. To avoid upgrade failure, the disks provided for upgrade must meet the following size requirement:

Disk(s) size ≥ USED PPs + Paging LV size (~512MB)

2.8 Migration of Security configurations during viosupgrade

Now the viosupgrade operation also migrates security configurations. Security configurations include Users + attributes, Groups + attributes, AIX Audit, EFS, LDAP, Trusted Execution, OpenSSL, OpenSSH, and Kerberos.

After the viosupgrade process completes, user-configurable files will be either:

• Restored as-is (copying the backup file into the installed path), OR
• Merged with the newly installed file (this will have backup file content along with newly installed file content), OR
• Installed version will be preserved in the installed path (backup file will be saved in the saveconf directory).

Users, groups and their attributes, roles, authorizations, privcmds, privfiles, trusted database-related files, and the IPsec config file (isakmpd.conf) will be merged. Hence, they will have content from the backup along with the installed version.

Audit, LDAP, domains, privdevs, login-related files, configuration-related files like .profile, login.cfg, pwdalg.cfg, user.roles, secvars.cfg, methods.cfg, mkuser.default, pam.conf, tcsd.conf, krb5.conf, openssl.cnf, fipsmodule.cnf, ct_log_list.cnf, ssh_config, and sshd_config files are restored as-is from the backup.

The rest of the files are untouched, keeping the installed file as-is and having a copy of the backup file in the saveconf directory for reference.

3 Contacting the PowerVM Team

Have questions for the PowerVM team or want to learn more?  Follow our discussion group on LinkedIn IBM PowerVM or IBM Community Discussions

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