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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
6100-06-03-1048
#
The NIM mksysb resource was named cg-aix61
root@nim1 / # lsnim -t mksysb
vio1-mksysb resources mksysb
cg-aix61 resources mksysb
root@nim1 / # lsnim -l cg-aix61
cg-aix61:
class = resources
type = mksysb
arch = power
Rstate = ready for use
prev_state = unavailable for use
location = /export/mksysb/cg-aix61
version = 6
release = 1
mod = 6
oslevel_r = 6100-06
alloc_count = 0
server = master
creation_date = Thu Jan 6 10:00:22 2011
source_image = cg
root@nim1 / #
To migrate the mksysb image from AIX 6.1 to AIX 7.1, I ran the following nimadm command:
root@nim1 / # nimadm -T cg-aix61 -O /export/mksysb/cg-aix71 -s spotaix7tl0sp2 -l aix7tl0sp2 -j nimadmvg -Y -N cg-aix71
The flags indicate the following:
-T specifies the existing AIX 6.1 NIM mksysb resource.
-O specifies the output location for the migrated mksysb resource.
-s indicates the AIX 7.1 NIM SPOT resource for the migration.
-l indicates the AIX 7.1 NIM lpp_source resource for the migration.
-j identifies the volume group that will be used on the NIM master to create file systems.
-Y Agrees to required software license agreements for software to be installed.
-N specifies the name of the new AIX 7.1 NIM mksysb resource to be created after migration.
Before running this command I made sure that I had installed the bos.alt_disk_install.rte fileset into my AIX 7.1 SPOT. If this fileset was not installed I would have received the following message immediately after issuing the nimadm command:
0042-001 nim: processing error encountered on "master":
/usr/bin/lslpp: Fileset bos.alt_disk_install.rte not installed.
0505-204 nimadm: SPOT spotaix7tl0sp2 does not have bos.alt_disk_install.rte installed.
0505-205 nimadm: The level of bos.alt_disk_install.rte installed in SPOT
spotaix7tl0sp2 (0.0.0.0) does not match the NIM master's level (7.1.0.2).
Cleaning up alt_disk_migration on the NIM master.
I also had an AIX 7.1 lpp_source and SPOT ready and waiting on my NIM master.
root@nim1 / # lsnim -t lpp_source
aix61tl6sp3 resources lpp_source
openssh resources lpp_source
aix7tl0sp2 resources lpp_source
root@nim1 / # lsnim -t spot
vio1-spot resources spot
spotaix61tl6sp3 resources spot
spotaix7tl0sp2 resources spot
OK, back to my nimadm operation. Upon initiating the migration I saw the following output on my screen (click here for a copy of the complete log file):
root@nim1 / # nimadm -T cg-aix61 -O /export/mksysb/cg-aix71 -s spotaix7tl0sp2 -l aix7tl0sp2 -j nimadmvg -Y -N cg-aix71
Initializing the NIM master.
Verifying alt_disk_migration eligibility.
Initializing log: /var/adm/ras/alt_mig/cg-aix61_alt_mig.log
Starting Alternate Disk Migration.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Executing nimadm phase 1.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Processing target mksysb resource cg-aix61.
Restoring /image.data from mksysb image.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Executing nimadm phase 2.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Creating nimadm cache file systems on volume group nimadmvg.
Checking for initial required migration space.
Creating cache file system /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst
Creating cache file system /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/admin
Creating cache file system /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/home
Creating cache file system /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/opt
Creating cache file system /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/tmp
Creating cache file system /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/usr
Creating cache file system /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/var
Creating cache file system /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/var/adm/ras/livedump
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Executing nimadm phase 3.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Syncing mksysb data to cache ...
.....etc......
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Executing nimadm phase 8.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Creating client boot image.
bosboot: Boot image is 45709 512 byte blocks.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Executing nimadm phase 9.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Adjusting client file system sizes ...
Adjusting size for /
Adjusting size for /admin
Adjusting size for /home
Adjusting size for /opt
Adjusting size for /tmp
Adjusting size for /usr
Adjusting size for /var
Adjusting size for /var/adm/ras/livedump
Backing up cache data to mksysb file /export/mksysb/cg-aix71 ...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Executing nimadm phase 10.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Unmounting client mounts on the NIM master.
forced unmount of /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/var/adm/ras/livedump
forced unmount of /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/var
forced unmount of /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/usr
forced unmount of /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/tmp
forced unmount of /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/opt
forced unmount of /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/home
forced unmount of /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/admin
forced unmount of /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst
Removing nimadm cache file systems.
Removing cache file system /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst
Removing cache file system /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/admin
Removing cache file system /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/home
Removing cache file system /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/opt
Removing cache file system /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/tmp
Removing cache file system /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/usr
Removing cache file system /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/var
Removing cache file system /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/var/adm/ras/livedump
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Executing nimadm phase 11.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Defining NIM mksysb resource ...
New NIMmksysb resource name is cg-aix71
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Executing nimadm phase 12.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Cleaning up alt_disk_migration on the NIM master.
root@nim1 / #
For a description of all the phases in a nimadm operation, I suggest you refer to my previous nimadm article or the AIX infocenter (links below).
Once the migration had completed, I found a new mksysb file in /export/mksysb (as expected). The file was named cg-aix71. And a new NIM mksysb resource was now available.
root@nim1 / # ls -ltr /export/mksysb/
total 30793928
drwxr-xr-x 2 root system 256 Dec 21 10:40 lost+found
-rw-r--r-- 1 root system 4893952000 Dec 21 14:42 vio1-mksysb
-rw-r--r-- 1 root system 2323097600 Jan 06 10:00 cg-aix61
-rw-r--r-- 1 root system 1967411200 Jan 06 11:00 cg-aix71
root@nim1 / # lsnim -t mksysb
vio1-mksysb resources mksysb
cg-aix61 resources mksysb
cg1-mksysb resources mksysb
cg-aix71 resources mksysb
root@nim1 / # lsnim -l cg-aix71
cg-aix71:
class = resources
type = mksysb
comments = Created by nimadm on Thu Jan 6 11:00:51 EETDT 2011
Rstate = ready for use
prev_state = unavailable for use
location = /export/mksysb/cg-aix71
version = 7
release = 1
mod = 0
oslevel_r = 7100-00
alloc_count = 0
server = master
creation_date = Thu Jan 6 11:00:54 2011
During the migration I noticed the following file systems were mounted on the NIM master.
root@nim1 / # df
Filesystem 512-blocks Free %Used Iused %Iused Mounted on
/dev/hd4 1572864 1149640 27% 10471 8% /
/dev/hd2 5242880 1597696 70% 42812 19% /usr
/dev/hd9var 1048576 250456 77% 8260 23% /var
/dev/hd3 8912896 8287752 8% 111 1% /tmp
/dev/hd1 524288 523520 1% 5 1% /home
/dev/hd11admin 524288 523488 1% 5 1% /admin
/proc - - - - - /proc
/dev/hd10opt 1048576 664176 37% 7262 9% /opt
/dev/livedump 524288 523552 1% 4 1% /var/adm/ras/livedump
/dev/tftpbootlv 524288 419656 20% 10 1% /tftpboot
/dev/exportlv 524288 523408 1% 13 1% /export
/dev/lppsrclv 25690112 4383632 83% 3114 1% /export/lppsource
/dev/spotlv 8912896 4848464 46% 43450 8% /export/spot
/dev/mksysblv 38273024 11315200 71% 9 1% /export/mksysb
/dev/lv00 425984 412432 4% 25 1% /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst
/dev/lv01 65536 63376 4% 18 1% /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/admin
/dev/lv02 65536 63384 4% 17 1% /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/home
/dev/lv03 557056 414720 26% 201 1% /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/opt
/dev/lv04 294912 285184 4% 21 1% /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/tmp
/dev/lv05 4653056 4506904 4% 17 1% /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/usr
/dev/lv06 720896 698160 4% 20 1% /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/var
/dev/lv07 65536 63384 4% 17 1% /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/var/adm/ras/livedump
And in my nimadmvg volume group, there were several new logical volumes.
root@nim1 / # lsvg -l nimadmvg
nimadmvg:
LV NAME TYPE LPs PPs PVs LV STATE MOUNT POINT
loglv02 jfslog 1 1 1 open/syncd N/A
lv00 jfs 13 13 1 open/syncd /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst
lv01 jfs 2 2 1 open/syncd /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/admin
lv02 jfs 2 2 1 open/syncd /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/home
lv03 jfs 17 17 1 open/syncd /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/opt
lv04 jfs 9 9 1 open/syncd /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/tmp
lv05 jfs 142 142 1 open/syncd /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/usr
lv06 jfs 22 22 1 open/syncd /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/var
lv07 jfs 2 2 1 open/syncd /cg-aix61_mm_alt/alt_inst/var/adm/ras/livedump
root@nim1 / #
These file systems were used to extract the mksysb locally on the NIM master and then migrate the image to AIX 7.1. I noticed the restbyname process consuming some CPU during the restore process.
Topas Monitor for host:nim1 EVENTS/QUEUES FILE/TTY
Thu Jan 6 10:15:38 2011 Interval:2 Cswitch 1155 Readch 2655.6K
Syscall 3143 Writech 2664.7K
CPU User% Kern% Wait% Idle% Physc Entc% Reads 454 Rawin 0
Total 6.1 22.0 8.2 63.7 0.09 47.04 Writes 1168 Ttyout 578
Forks 12 Igets 85
Network BPS I-Pkts O-Pkts B-In B-Out Execs 0 Namei 521
Total 7.74K 5.50 1.50 5.74K 2.00K Runqueue 0 Dirblk 97
Waitqueue 1.0
Disk Busy% BPS TPS B-Read B-Writ MEMORY
Total 0.0 5.21M 383.0 2.02M 3.19M PAGING Real,MB 2048
Faults 776 % Comp 67
FileSystem BPS TPS B-Read B-Writ Steals 1118 % Noncomp 32
Total 2.03M 85.50 2.03M 0 PgspIn 0 % Client 19
PgspOut 0
Name PID CPU% PgSp Owner PageIn 517 PAGING SPACE
restbyna 15532232 16.4 1.21M root PageOut 816 Size,MB 512
vmmd 458766 5.5 1.19M root Sios 969 % Used 3
lrud 262152 1.5 512K root % Free 97
syncd 2097296 1.1 592K root NFS (calls/sec)
topas 16973864 0.5 1.98M root SerV2 0 WPAR Activ 0
xmgc 851994 0.5 448K root CliV2 0 WPAR Total 0
nimesis 12320772 0.3 2.41M root SerV3 0 Press: "h"-help
getty 7798832 0.1 580K root CliV3 0 "q"-quit
xmtopas 8847610 0.1 816K root
nfsd 5111964 0.1 4.75M root
xmtopasa 6947052 0.1 916K root
gil 1441836 0.0 960K root
java 4784136 0.0 57.5M pconsole
java 8716308 0.0 70.7M root
rpc.lock 6029528 0.0 1.19M root
clcomd 6160578 0.0 1.69M root
pilegc 786456 0.0 640K root
aixmibd 3997882 0.0 1.24M root
netm 1376298 0.0 448K root
topasrec 8454202 0.0 1.01M root
root@nim1 / # ps -ef | grep rest
root 15270132 3342336 1 10:15:55 pts/1 0:00 grep rest
root 15532232 10747910 37 10:14:02 pts/0 0:02 restbyname -x -q -f /export/mksysb/cg-aix61
root@nim1 / #
I didn’t encounter any issues with my nimadm operation but if I had I could have reviewed the nimadm log file located in /var/adm/ras:
root@nim1 /var/adm/ras/alt_mig # ls -ltr
total 856
-rw-r--r-- 1 root system 435009 Jan 06 11:00 cg-aix61_alt_mig.log
If you ever encounter problems with nimadm, I highly recommend that you re-run the operation with the –V and –D flags. This will enable verbose output, as well as debugging information which can assist you greatly in determining the root cause of your issue.
I was able to use the new, migrated, AIX 7.1 mksysb image to install a new LPAR.
AIX Version 7
Copyright IBM Corporation, 1982, 2010.
login: root
root's Password:
*******************************************************************************
* *
* *
* Welcome to AIX Version 7.1! *
* *
* *
* Please see the README file in /usr/lpp/bos for information pertinent to *
* this release of the AIX Operating System. *
* *
* *
*******************************************************************************
Last login: Thu Jan 6 13:21:04 EETDT 2011 on /dev/vty0
# oslevel -s
7100-00-02-1041
#
You’ve gotta love NIM! Take a look at the nimadm documentation for more information:
By the way, if you are interested in migrating from AIX 4.3 to AIX 7.1, then you’ll need to consider the mksysb migration method. I’ve not done this myself (i.e. 4.3 to 7.1 migration) but the feedback I received from the AIX development team indicates that it does work as expected.
“... you had expressed some interest
in mksysb migration. Since we were not aware of anyone having attempted
it with 7.1. I went ahead and created a 4.3.3.75 system and created a
mksysb and then used that mksysb in conjunction with nim and successfully
installed another system using the 4.3 mksysb and 7.1 nim resources to perform
a mksysb migration to 7.1. I just followed the steps as noted in the
Installation guide for mksysb migration. “
Refer to the following document for further information on mksysb migration with NIM.
NIM from A to Z in AIX 5L Redbook.
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg247296.html?Open
