Originally posted by: tomkiat

Hi everyone,

I am doing a migration of my NIM master to Power7.
here is my plan.

1/ create an alternate master on power7
2/ synch the primary master to alternate mater
3/ on alternate master do takeover of primary master

I looked at the redbook NIM for AIX SG247296 and took this approach when it came to high availabilty for NIM as one approach to migrate NIM to new hardware.

Everything went well but to point 3, when i tried to do the takeover I got this surprise.

0042-025 nim: the takeover operation cannot be applied to standalone types. Use lsnim -O <object name> or lsnim -POt <type> to list valid operations for a particular object or object type.

Has anyone does this HANIM setup ? How does one backup NIM master with NIM? Any clues or hints most appreciated.

regrds
Thomas

Originally posted by: Juredd1

We have used a NIM server in our environment for many years now but I am sure I am out of the loop on lots of new things. We stick pretty close to "if it ain't broke don't fix it" rule.

The last I knew you can't backup a NIM master with NIM, as a NIM master can't be a NIM client (Again last I knew). I didn't realize you could do steps 1 and 2 as mentioned. So why am I replying? You asked for any clues or hints so.....

This one seems to ease but thought I would mention it anyway. Do you have a tape drive available? If so perform a mksysb of the NIM Master and restore it on your new hardware. As this only gets rootvg you will need to either restore your other data from backup (That is if you back up your stored mksysb imagines, spots, and lpp_sourcess) or if it's external storage that can be moved to the new hardware then you are in good shape. If not plan B.

What kind of disk is the mksysb imagines, spot images, and lpp_source data setting on? If its external storage such as a shark then build a fresh server at the same level on your new hardware using your NIM master. Back up the NIM DB on your master (smitty nim_backup_db). Install the "bos.sysmgt.nim.master" file set on the new hardware. Swing over the external storage from the old master to the new master. Move the NIM DB files from the old master to the new master and restore the NIM DB on the new hardware.

There will probably be some other small things to consider. You may have entries in the /etc/hosts file or /etc/hosts.equiv file that need to be moved. Move any scripts that you have related to automated backup and such.

Just a couple thoughts. We have had to do this when our mksysb tapes fail during our DR testing.

Originally posted by: j.gann

i agree, backup and restore nim db (odm) would be my choice.

nim server rootvg can be backed by a bootable dvd (mkdvd) for bare metal recovery.

Originally posted by: tomkiat

There is no writable DVD or tape drive and all Disks are internal not on SAN. I agree with the nim db backup approach and then do a OS install on the new machine.
Anyone done HANIM according to the NIM redbook?

Originally posted by: j.gann

you can create an iso image and burn it to dvd on a pc...

Originally posted by: tomkiat

Yes I saw this before but neverdone one to be honest.Have you the link to the steps for burning bootable CD on windows Laptop.

BTW, I don't need assistnae to this alternate NIM stuff now. got aroud it.
Thank you to all who responded on this topic.