Originally posted by: SystemAdmin

NIM newb here coming from a Solaris JumpStart background. I have a mksysb that doesn't install for lack of space in /usr. The rootvg LUN is plenty big enough, but the default size for /usr is too small.

How/where do I define the sizes of the rootvg logical volumes?

Thanks!

Originally posted by: Juredd1

I am not following. If you have a mksysb and you are trying to restore it to a server (same or different) it shouldn't matter what size the /usr file system is. As long as the disks that you are restoring it to are the same size or larger than the ones on the original server. I don't know Solaris, if it were AIX I would ask is the rootvg mirrored on the original server and if so you will need to account for that on the new server.

Originally posted by: Juredd1

I just come to realization that we are on an IBM forum site so you are probably using AIX. Sorry I don't know Solaris at all so I was just assuming they have some sort of msksyb backup process as well.

******Do this at your own risk***** It has been a long time since I have done this but I think you can extract the image.data file from the mksysb (restore -xvqf mksysb_name ./image.data) and modify the number of PP's and LP's to get what you are after then when you run through the nim screens to set up the mksysb restore you have the option to select the image.data file you just extracted and it will use it versus the one on the mksysb image.

I would do some google searches on image.data. Here is one from the IBM site.

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/aix/v6r1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.aix.files/doc/aixfiles/image.data.htm

Originally posted by: SystemAdmin

Thanks! I'll have a look around for image.data stuff.

The source system from which the mksysb was created has a 4GB /usr. When trying to use this mksysb to install other systems using NIM, the install fails as follows:

---

Approximate Elapsed time
% tasks complete (in minutes)
Restore unable to write to file './usr/swat/help/Samba3-ByExample/images/chap4-net.png' .. Aborting!
Restore : No space left on device
BOS Install: Restore of Base Operating System from /NIM_BOS_IMAGE failed.
ID# OPTION
1 Continue
2 Perform System Maintenance and Then Continue
Enter ID number:

---

I selected option 2 and had a look at the filesystems. The file system sizes are all the default sizes you get when installing from DVD. E.g., 2GB /usr.

---

1. df -m

Filesystem MB blocks Free %Used Iused %Iused Mounted on
SNIP
/dev/hd4 192.00 191.60 1% 11 1% /mnt
/dev/hd11admin 128.00 127.64 1% 5 1% /mnt/admin
/dev/hd10opt 352.00 170.97 52% 7040 16% /mnt/opt
/dev/hd3 128.00 126.84 1% 47 1% /mnt/tmp
/dev/hd2 1920.00 0.07 100% 42066 91% /mnt/usr
/dev/hd9var 384.00 65.44 83% 9039 37% /mnt/var
/dev/livedump 256.00 255.64 1% 4 1% /mnt/var/adm/ras/livedump

---

A Jumpstart in Solaris would suffer the same problem. You need to ensure the file systems on the target are large enough. These are simply configured in a text "profile" file.

I guess what I am looking for is a way to specify the file system sizes myself, or for some way for the NIM installation to deal with this. Would seem like a common problem.

Originally posted by: SystemAdmin

Am I correct is saying that I should be using the -i option when creating a mksysb from my 'golden image' system?

Originally posted by: shargus

When you restore the mksysb, look for the "Shrink file systems? yes/no" and select that option.
Even though it says "Shrink", it actually changes the size of the file system to accommodate your restore.

Originally posted by: SystemAdmin

It's a good practice to create image.data along with mksysb creation and glance it through before following installation. -i is sufficient, yes.

Regards,
AM

Originally posted by: SystemAdmin

The solution for me was to use the "-i" flag when creating the mksysb file.