Hi all,

is there a way to do some kind of "manual" alternate disk migration without a NIM server ? (using for example alt_disk_copy, alt_rootvg_op, chroot...) to migrate AIX 7.1 to 7.2 ?

Thanks in advance.

------------------------------
Sylvain
------------------------------

Yes…

In short… find the target disk you want to install to
alt_disk_copy -d hdisk## # There are parms you can pass that will apply maintenance in phase 2.
phase 1: copy the disk
phase 2: patch the target disk
phase 3: reset everything, prep for reboot.

This will set the booklist to the target disk so you could basically just "shutdown -Fr 0” at this point and be on the new disk

after the copy (and optional patching), you can use alt_rootvg_op -W to “wake up the target disk”
DO NOT do a varyonvg of the alternate_rootvg AIX will identify the LVs as duplicates and rename them.. which really sucks when you’re trying to boot, looking for hd5
use alt_rootvg_op -W instead … it’ll mount the file systems as /alt_home /alt_usr /alt_var etc
You can then chroot yourself into that environment and do as you please
then use alt_rootvg_op -S to break it down and put it to sleep, prepping for a reboot

Tom


Original Message:
Sent: 9/21/2022 5:14:00 AM
From: Sylvain
Subject: Alternate disk migration without a NIM server

Hi all,

is there a way to do some kind of "manual" alternate disk migration without a NIM server ? (using for example alt_disk_copy, alt_rootvg_op, chroot...) to migrate AIX 7.1 to 7.2 ?

Thanks in advance.

------------------------------
Sylvain
------------------------------

Thanks Tom for your reply.

I have done OS updates several times in the past using this method to apply new TL and/or SP.

But I don't see clearly how to use alt_disk_copy to do an OS migration from AIX 7.1 to AIX 7.2.

Is the use of the following flags sufficient ?

alt_disk_copy -d hdisk1 -b update_all -l /AIX_7.2_Base_Image/

------------------------------
Sylvain
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Wed September 21, 2022 07:44 AM
From: Tom McGivern
Subject: Alternate disk migration without a NIM server

Yes…

In short… find the target disk you want to install to
alt_disk_copy -d hdisk## # There are parms you can pass that will apply maintenance in phase 2.
phase 1: copy the disk
phase 2: patch the target disk
phase 3: reset everything, prep for reboot.

This will set the booklist to the target disk so you could basically just "shutdown -Fr 0" at this point and be on the new disk

after the copy (and optional patching), you can use alt_rootvg_op -W to "wake up the target disk"
DO NOT do a varyonvg of the alternate_rootvg AIX will identify the LVs as duplicates and rename them.. which really sucks when you're trying to boot, looking for hd5
use alt_rootvg_op -W instead … it'll mount the file systems as /alt_home /alt_usr /alt_var etc
You can then chroot yourself into that environment and do as you please
then use alt_rootvg_op -S to break it down and put it to sleep, prepping for a reboot

Tom


Original Message:
Sent: 9/21/2022 5:14:00 AM
From: Sylvain
Subject: Alternate disk migration without a NIM server

Hi all,

is there a way to do some kind of "manual" alternate disk migration without a NIM server ? (using for example alt_disk_copy, alt_rootvg_op, chroot...) to migrate AIX 7.1 to 7.2 ?

Thanks in advance.

------------------------------
Sylvain
------------------------------

No… sorry, As I was reviewing the parameters, it dawned on me, no… an upgrade/migration (vs an update), can’t be (to my knowledge) be built on a target disk completely from a previous version/release.
If you have a VIO server, you could mount the ISO as File-backed-optical, (mkvdev -fbo ….)
do the alt_disk_copy to a second disk
Then boot from the FBO device, and perform an upgrade in place against the second disk.

this leaves your original disk as a fall-back option.
But, this does require a reboot to get the upgrade performed.


Original Message:
Sent: 9/21/2022 8:51:00 AM
From: Sylvain
Subject: RE: Alternate disk migration without a NIM server

Thanks Tom for your reply.

I have done OS updates several times in the past using this method to apply new TL and/or SP.

But I don't see clearly how to use alt_disk_copy to do an OS migration from AIX 7.1 to AIX 7.2.

Is the use of the following flags sufficient ?

alt_disk_copy -d hdisk1 -b update_all -l /AIX_7.2_Base_Image/

------------------------------
Sylvain
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Wed September 21, 2022 07:44 AM
From: Tom McGivern
Subject: Alternate disk migration without a NIM server

Yes…

In short… find the target disk you want to install to
alt_disk_copy -d hdisk## # There are parms you can pass that will apply maintenance in phase 2.
phase 1: copy the disk
phase 2: patch the target disk
phase 3: reset everything, prep for reboot.

This will set the booklist to the target disk so you could basically just "shutdown -Fr 0" at this point and be on the new disk

after the copy (and optional patching), you can use alt_rootvg_op -W to "wake up the target disk"
DO NOT do a varyonvg of the alternate_rootvg AIX will identify the LVs as duplicates and rename them.. which really sucks when you're trying to boot, looking for hd5
use alt_rootvg_op -W instead … it'll mount the file systems as /alt_home /alt_usr /alt_var etc
You can then chroot yourself into that environment and do as you please
then use alt_rootvg_op -S to break it down and put it to sleep, prepping for a reboot

Tom


Original Message:
Sent: 9/21/2022 5:14:00 AM
From: Sylvain
Subject: Alternate disk migration without a NIM server

Hi all,

is there a way to do some kind of "manual" alternate disk migration without a NIM server ? (using for example alt_disk_copy, alt_rootvg_op, chroot...) to migrate AIX 7.1 to 7.2 ?

Thanks in advance.

------------------------------
Sylvain
------------------------------