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Migrating to AIX 7.1 with nimadm.
Last year I wrote an article on using nimadm
to migrate to AIX 6.1 . The procedures outlined how to migrate a live system with nimadm and a spare disk. Another method that I have found to be extremely useful is
the migration of mksysb images from one version of AIX to another using (you
guessed it) nimadm . In the following example I migrated an AIX 6.1 mksysb image
to AIX 7.1 and then used that image to install a new LPAR via NIM. The source LPAR was running AIX 6.1 TL6 SP3. I took a mksysb
of this system to my NIM master. # oslevel -s... [More]
Tags: gibson migration chris nimadm aix |
Tuning Virtual Ethernet adapters for (even) better backup performance.
Are you backing up your AIX systems
over Virtual Ethernet adapters? Of course you are, who isn’t right? Are your
backup server and clients on the same physical POWER system? You are most
likely backing up over Virtual Ethernet to another AIX LPAR that is running
your enterprise backup software, such as TSM or Legato Networker for example.
And you probably have a dedicated private virtual network (and adapters) on
both the clients and the server to handle the traffic for the nightly backups.
The next question is, have you tuned your... [More]
Tags: min_buf_huge=96 backup netstat slow hypervisor -a aix max_buf_huge=128 tsm chris_gibson min_buf_large=96 max_buf_large=256 networker min_buf_medium=512 -l adapter max_buf_medium=1024 virtual ent1 chdev –a ethernet |
Renaming devices in AIX 7.1
I remember reading this interesting document about some challenges
renaming AIX devices. http://gibsonnet.net/aix/ibm/The_Fun_of_Oracle_RAC_ASM_and_Device_Names.doc This poor guy had to jump through some hoops to rename some disk
and network devices in a clustered AIX (Oracle RAC) environment. This comment stayed with me: “ The easy way to get network
adapters and disk names to match between systems would be to run
something like # chdev –l old_name –n new_name Except, this command option does NOT exist. ” Since then I’ve... [More]
Tags: 7.1 gibson aix chris rendev |
DLPAR not doing it for you anymore?
I received an email from one of my customers recently that simply said: “mate …on lpar30, for some reason the IBM.DRM and others are failing to start .. um .. any chance you could have a quick look at that ?” So I asked, “OK, so this use to work right?”. To which I received a relatively confused reply, ” .....yep it did....actually no....it’s never worked....or has it???...I’m not sure... ”. Based on my experience, the most common issue that prevents DLPAR operations... [More]
Tags: gibson chris dlpar aix |
Replicated rootvg, ghostdev and NPIV
My team and I have recently
been trying to stream line our AIX disaster recovery process. We’ve been
looking for ways to reduce our overall recovery time. Several ideas were tossed
around such as a) using a standby DR LPAR with AIX already installed and using
rsync/scp to keep the Prod & DR LPARs in sync and b) using alt_disk_copy
(with the –O flag for a device reset) to clone rootvg to an alternate disk
which is then replicated to DR. These methods may work but are cumbersome to
administer and (in the case of alt_disk_copy) require... [More]
Tags: chris hds recovery led rootvg fc support ghostdev replication lpar hung gibson 554 boot replicated chris_gibson vfc vsp aix san channel virtual fibre dr disaster npiv hang |
Cluster Aware AIX
Using Cluster Aware AIX with AIX 7.1 you can create a cluster of AIX
nodes. This interconnected cluster of nodes can immediately provide several
capabilities, such as: ·
Clusterwide event management. ·
Communication and storage events: o
Node UP and node DOWN o
Network adapter UP and DOWN o
Network address change o
Point-of-contact UP and DOWN o
Disk UP and DOWN o
Predefined and user-defined events ·
Clusterwide storage naming service ·
Clusterwide command... [More]
Tags: caa_private0 caa event aware ahafs cluster mkcluster aix cldisk1 7.1 lscluster |
AIX 7.1 – DSM dgetmacs.
I received an email this week from a
colleague that worked with me on the NIM
Redbook back in 2006. He was experiencing an issue with DSM and NIM. He was
attempting to use the dgetmacs command to obtain the MAC address of the network adapters on an LPAR. The
command was failing to return the right information. This was the output from his attempt
with dgetmacs : # dgetmacs -n lpar1 Using an adapter type of "ent". Could not dsh to node lpar1. Attempting to use openfirmware method to
collect MAC addresses. Acquiring adapter... [More]
Tags: nim aix chris dgetmacs 7.1 gibson dsm |
How much memory or CPU will that CoD code activate anyway?
This little tip was passed on to me by
a friendly IBM hardware engineer many years ago. When entering a capacity on demand
(CoD) code into a Power system, you can tell how many processors and how much
memory will be activated, just by looking at the code you’ve given by IBM. For example, the following codes, when
entered for the appropriate Power system, will enable 4 processors (POD) and
64GB of memory (MOD). I can also tell* that once the VET code is entered, this
system will be licensed for PowerVM Enterprise Edition (2C28). ... [More]
Tags: power cod gibson mod demand activation aix pod capacity chris code on powervm vet |
fatal: PRNG is not seeded.
The /dev/*random* devices were missing…….and I had to recreate them! # tail /var/log/syslog Oct 15 16:36:01 lpar1 auth|security :crit sshd [380976]: fatal: PRNG is not seeded # odmget CuDvDr | grep -p random CuDvDr : resource = " ddins " value1 = "random" value2 = " 32 " value3 = "" # mknod /dev/random c 32 0 # mknod /dev/ urandom c 32 1 # randomctl -l # stopsrc -s sshd # startsrc -s sshd
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Simplifying AIX Live Update with PowerVC
Starting with AIX Version 7.2, the AIX operating system provides the Live Update function which eliminates downtime required when patching the AIX operating system kernel. Your application workloads are not stopped, yet they can take advantage of the new fixes immediately after the Live Update operation, without a reboot. Administrators can use the Live Update feature to install AIX interim fixes, service packs and technology levels. In a nutshell, Live Update allows AIX administrators to install AIX updates in-place, but instead of... [More]
Tags: 7.2 blog openstack pvcauth powervc aix live update novalink hmc tl2 power8 chris vios cloud geninstall powervm gibson power |
How to live update your AIX system without rebooting the server.
A little over a year ago, I wrote about the new AIX Live Update feature , available with the AIX 7.2. I discussed how to use this new feature to install an interim fix (ifix) on a running AIX system without a reboot. On October 11th, 2016, IBM announced the next exciting step in AIX Live Updates . Introducing IBM AIX 7.2.1 Live Update http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/aix/library/au-aix7.2.1-liveupdate-trs/index.html?ca=drs-&ce=ism0070&ct=is&cmp=ibmsocial&cm=h&cr=crossbrand&ccy=us This is a... [More]
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In a perfect world....rootvg would always reside on hdisk0.
In a perfect world, 99.9% of AIX administrators would prefer their systems to look like this: # lspv | grep rootvg hdisk0 00c342c68dfcbdfb rootvg active However, in reality, 99.9% of AIX administrators live with systems that look something like this: # lspv | grep rootvg hdisk39... [More]
Tags: hdisk0 chris_gibson rendev rootvg aix |
Convert rootvg file systems to JFS2 using alt_disk_copy
Q: Does
alt_disk_copy convert JFS filesystems to JFS2? A: Yes! Starting at 6100-04 , a new
flag was introduced that would convert JFS filesystems to JFS2. We now have the
-T which does the conversion. http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=isg3T1011055 Here’s an example of converting
rootvg file systems from JFS to JFS2 using alt_disk_copy .
My lab system was migrated from AIX
5.3 to 7.1 via nimadm . Unfortunately, nimadm does not convert JFS file
systems to JFS2 during the migration. So, in this case, even though... [More]
Tags: convert chris_gibson aix jfs2 alt_disk_copy jfs conversion |
nimadm - multibos error!?
I’ve been working with a customer recently on
an issue with nimadm . They were
attempting to migrate a system from AIX 5.3 to 7.1 using nimadm . The NIM client AIX
level was 5.3 TL12 SP4 and the NIM master was running AIX 7.1 TL1 SP1. lpar1
: / # oslevel -s 5300-12-04-1119 root@nim1
: / # oslevel -s 7100-01-01-1141 They were
running the following nimadm command: #
nimadm -j nimadmvg -c lpar1 -s spotaix710101 -l lpp_sourceaix710101 -d hdisk1
-Y The nimadm operation would always fail at phase 11: ... [More]
Tags: altinst_rootvg attention: client nimadm: cloning error returned multibos 6 unexpected init_multibos() 11 7.1 phase alt_disk_copy: nimadm on result an .1 0505-218 5.3 aix 0505-187 |
IVM and VLAN Tagging
I was working
with a customer recently on a Power Blade that was running the Integrated
Virtualisation Manager (IVM). They’d installed a VIO partition onto the Blade
and had hoped to install a couple of AIX LPARs on the system. However they didn’t
get very far. As soon as they
attempted to NIM install the LPARs, they would get stuck at trying to ping the
NIM master from the client. Basically, the Shared Ethernet Adapter (SEA) was
not working properly and none of the LPARs could communicate with the external
network. So they asked for... [More]
Tags: ivm chhwres vlan lshwres aix tag vios sea |
