Having completed a number of VIOS upgrades recently I raised an "Idea" on the IBM Portal asking for a command line switch to be added to the viosupgrade command so that the files backed up using the "-g" flag can be auto-restored in an effort to streamline things and avoid the need to define a "roll your own" restore.

If you have a moment, please nip over to IBM Ideas and review/vote.

Many thanks, Steve

Hi Steve.

I've not tried this, but is it not accomplished using the following option:

-F forcecopy

• AIX viosupgrade command
• VIOS viosupgrade command

forcecopy

Copies the list of files that are specified in the filename with the -g flag, to the respective paths in the newly installed rootvg disks.

Rich,

Ah! :-)  I'll give this a go, it certainly seems to answer my need.  Likely to be a classic "RTBM Steve" moment :-)

All the best, Steve

-F forcecopy

Reading the options for the viosupgrade command is like a brain teaser these days!

I only realised it was now there as I'd spotted viosupgrade enhancements in the latest v3.1.4.60 & v4.1.1.10 notes.

Specifically the "user account" and "supports all NIM options", but I was certain I'd also seen a restore option when cheching for other flags :^)

viosupgrade enhancements

The major enhancements done in viosupgrade in this release are as follows.

• Enables upgrades on systems that have a mirrored rootvg disk.
• Includes new options, such as the -noprompt flag to answer user prompts in advance in the following scenarios:
  • Prompts you to confirm whether to skip logical volumes that cannot be migrated.
  • Detects third-party Multi Path input output (MPIO) software and prompts you to confirm whether to proceed with the VIOS upgrade.
• Allows upgrading VIOS by using ISO images in a single step. For example, the -i flag can accept both mksysb and ISO images.
• Retains user account configurations and the home directories automatically.
• Supports all the options available in the standalone version of VIOS in the Network Installation Management (NIM) version.
• Preserves the following security configurations, by default:
  • User accounts and groups with login attributes and password.
  • Role based access control (RBAC) configurations, such as user roles, authorizations, privileged commands database (privcmds), privileged device database (privdevs), privileged files (privfiles) and domains.
  • Login and authentication configurations.
  • AIX audit sub system configurations.
  • Trusted execution policies and databases.
  • IPSec filters and tunnel configurations.
  • Lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) client configurations.
  • OpenSSL, OpenSSH and Kerberos configurations.

-F forcecopy

Confirmed --- "viosupgrade" using "-F forcecopy" does exactly what I need.

@Rich Jefferies Thank-you for pointing this out, saves my current workaround :-)

All the best, Steve

-F forcecopy