How-To Migrate From a AIX5.

3 TL4 Image From a p5 to a p6 Server

Author: Allan E Cano acano@itrus.com

Date: August 27, 2008

In the process of trying to migrate 12 LPARS running AIX 5.3 TL 4 from p5 servers to a
new p6 Power570 we learned some important lessons.

1. AIX 5.3 TL 4 won't boot via tape or NIM on a p6 server. In the past we'd do an on
the fly update via NIM when migrating to new processor levels. This was not an
option for a p5/p5+ to p6 migration for anything less than AIX 5.3 TL 6.

2. It's probably documented but worth reminding, a 32-bit kernel won't boot on a p6
processor. At least not with the 12 images I tried even when running AIX 5.3.8.1.

For our migration we were limited by time, resources, and not being allowed to update
the production servers to a supported p6 AIX level.

So two options (see below) which would have easily worked were ruled out:

1. On the p5 server perform an inplace upgrade to 5.3.7+ and then clone this on the
new p6 server.

Pros: Simple and direct migration process

Cons: Requires down time and possibly testing/validation. So, this may not be an
option for production servers.

2. Create a new P5 LPAR to stage the update from a clone of the existing server.
Then make another mksysb of the updated server and clone this to the new p6
server.

Pros: Simple and somewhat direct migration process. Allows for testing at the
new level

Cons: Requires additional resources or a reduction in existing server allocations.

Our solution was to make use of the alt_disk_install tools to update 'in place' on the p6
server.
 How-To Migrate From a AIX5.3 TL4 Image From a p5 to a p6 Server

We were using a VIO server to present the disk; however, the process would work as
well for direct attached, iSCSI or SAN disk.

Pros: No additional hardware and allows for testing.

Cons: Can be complicated. See the process below

Prerequisites

1. Install an LPAR at a supported AIX level.

2. Make sure to install the alt_disk_install LPPs.

For our purposes we'll call this hosting LPAR lpar1.

Our goal will be to build lpar2 from an AIX 5.3 TL 4 mksysb image.

Process

1. Present the disk to be used to boot lpar2 to lpar1. This can be done by:

a. Mapping a LUN to an assigned fiber card

b. Assigned a physical adapter with associated disks
c. Map a virtual disk via mkvdev to the vhost adapter for lpar1

We'll assume there are two such disk called hdisk2 and hdisk3.

2. Make the lpar2 mksysb image available to lpar1 (tape, ftp, nfs, etc).

We'll assume the image is /export/mksysb/mksysb_lpar2.

3. Make an lpp source at the desired AIX level. In our case this was AIX 5.3.8.1 from
a DVD.

# bffcreate -d /dev/cd0 -t /export/lpp_source/lpp_aix_5381 -X all

4. Use the following commands to load and update the image

# alt_disk_copy -m /export/mksysb/mksysb_lpar2 -d "hdisk2 hdisk3" –BOKg

# alt_root_op -W -d hdisk2
# alt_rootvg_op -C -b update_all -l /export/lpp_source/lpp_aix_5381
# alt_rootvg_op –S
# alt_rootvg_op –X
 How-To Migrate From a AIX5.3 TL4 Image From a p5 to a p6 Server

5. Remove lpar2’s disks (and adapters if necessary) and then reassign to lpar2.

Boot lpar2

This process worked for 9 of 12 LPARs. However, for reasons as yet

undetermined, 3 of the images booted to a 32-bit kernel. (And, yes the source
system was a 64 for bit kernel.) This is normally resolved by booting into
maintenance mode and running a bosboot; however, in this case there was a twist
since the ODM was wiped by the -O in the alt disk process.

1. Boot from the AIX 5.3.8.1 media.

2. Choose option 3 to start a maintanence shell
3. Select to start a root shell BEFORE mounting filesystems.
4. Copy the ODM from the ram partition into the OS

# mount /dev/hd4 /mnt

# cd /etc/objrepos
# cp CuAt* CuDv* CuDvDr* CuDep* CuVPD* /mnt/etc/objrepos
# umount /mnt
# exit
# bosboot -a -d hdisk0
# savebase
# bosboot -m normal hdisk0
<May get an error. Don't worry about it. Just boot to SMS and set the bootlist.>
# sync;sync;sync
# reboot