Modifying the KSYS configuration

Growing business requirements might need changes in your current configuration, for example, adding a specific virtual machine, adding an entire host to your environment, adding an HMC, or adding a disk in the virtual machine. After the VM Recovery Manager DR solution is implemented in your environment, the KSYS subsystem continues to monitor any changes in the KSYS configuration. If you want to modify the current configuration in your environment, you can run the ksysmgr discover command to discover and validate the changes in the KSYS configuration immediately.

Notes:
  • If you want to add a new virtual machine to the KSYS configuration, ensure that the corresponding host and the managing HMC are also added to the KSYS configuration . Also, you must add a corresponding host and a managing HMC to the backup site so that you can create a host pair across sites for the symmetric host group.
  • When you add a host to the KSYS configuration, by default all the virtual machines are included in the KSYS configuration. You can set the virtual machines that are not required as unmanaged. The unmanaged virtual machines will not be monitored and will not be considered for any operations.
  • If you want to add a disk array to the KSYS configuration, you must add corresponding storage agents to the corresponding site. Also, you must add equal number of storage disks with the same disk size to the backup site so that disk pair can be created by the KSYS subsystem during the discovery operation.

To add a specific VM to the KSYS configuration after the initial KSYS subsystem setup, complete the following steps:

  1. Add the managing HMC and the managed host, which contains VM, to the active site by running the following command:
    ksysmgr add hmc Site1_HMC3 login=hscroot hostname=Site1_HMC3.testlab.ibm.com site=Site1
    
    ksysmgr add host Site1_host3 site=Site1
  2. Add the managing HMC and the managed host to the backup site by running the following command. These managing HMC and managed hosts can be used to create host pairs.
    ksysmgr add hmc Site2_HMC3 login=hscroot hostname=Site2_HMC3.testlab.ibm.com site=Site2
    
    ksysmgr add host Site2_host3 site=Site2
  3. Create a host pair between these added hosts by running the following command:
    ksysmgr pair host Site1_host3 pair=Site2_host3
  4. If you want to exclude some virtual machines during a disaster recovery operation, run the following command for each virtual machine that you want to exclude:
    ksysmgr unmanage vm
          name=<vmname> host=<hostname> | uuid=<lparuuid> | ALL host=<hostname> | ALL host_group=<host_group_name>
    
  5. If the virtual machines use storage disks that are not yet added to the KSYS configuration, add the corresponding disks to the existing storage arrays in the corresponding sites.
    Note: You must add a corresponding disk in the backup site also, so that the KSYS subsystem can create a disk pair across sites for replication during the discovery operation.
  6. If you want to add a storage array to a site or update an attribute of the storage array, you must create or modify storage agents in the KSYS configuration by running the following command:
    ksysmgr add storage_agent <storage_agent_name>
          hostname | ip =<hostname1[,hostname2,hostname3,...] | ip1[,ip2,ip3,...]>
          site=<sitename>
          storagetype=<type>
          serialnumber=<number> | clusterid=<number> | instance=<instance_number>
          [login=<username>]
          [password=<password>]
          [drinstance=<drinstance_number>]
    
  7. Discover and verify these added resources by running the following command:
    ksysmgr discover site Site1 verify=yes
    The KSYS starts to monitor the modified configuration in the active site.

Modifying the attributes of the added resources

In addition to adding new resources, you can also modify the attributes of an existing resource in the KSYS configuration.

You can change the resource attributes as shown in the following examples:

  • To update the HMC login credentials, or IP address, use the following syntax:
    ksysmgr modify hmc hmcname
          [login=new_username]
          [password=new_password]
          [hostname|ip=new_hostname|new_ip]
  • To change the storage agent details, use the following syntax:
    ksysmgr modify storage_agent <storage_agent_name>
    [storage_agent_name=<new_storage_agent_name>]
    [hostname=<hostname[,hostname2,hostname3]>]
    [ip=<ip[,ip2,ip3]>]
    [login=<username>]
    [password=<password>]
    [drinstance=<drinstance_number>]
    modify => mod*, ch*, set
    storage_agent => storage*, sta
    
    Notes:
    • Both login user name and password are required for some storage devices.
    • The DrInstance attribute is required only for remote storage agent.
    • Only the XIV storage allows registration of more than one IP address.
  • To update the contact details for the KSYS notification, use the following syntax:
    ksysmgr modify notify oldcontact=old_username newcontact=new_username
    ksysmgr modify notify oldcontact=old_email_address newcontact=new_email_address
    For more information about the KSYS notifications, see Managing the KSYS notifications.
  • To update the system tunable attributes, use the following syntax:
    ksysmgr modify system attribute=new_value
    For more information about the system tunable attributes, see Managing the system attributes.
  • To update the priority of virtual machines, use the following syntax:
    ksysmgr modify VM name1[,name2,name3,...] | file=filepath
       [uuid=uuid_value]
       [host=hostname]
       [priority=low|medium|high]
  • To update the target host of a virtual machine for the disaster recovery operation, run the following command:
    ksysmgr modify vm <vmname,[vmname2,…]> | file=filepath DrTargetHost=<hostname|none>]
    
Note: You cannot update any attributes of an existing host in the KSYS configuration. Any modifications in the host details are registered in the HMC, and the KSYS subsystem discovers these changes during the discovery operation.

Failover of a managing node from one KSYS node to another KSYS node when high availability of KSYS nodes is handled by the inbuilt high availability feature

Complete the following procedure to change the group leader node:
  1. To identify the current group leader node (GL node), run the following command:
    ksysmgr query cluster
    An output that is similar to the following screen is displayed:
    
    Name:                ksys_cluster
    State:               Online
    Type:                DR
    Ksysnodes:           node1:1:Online    (Managing node)
                         node2:2:Online
    KsysState:           node1:1:Online
                         node2:2:Online
    The output displays node1 as the group leader node (GL node).
  2. To stop the VMR daemon on the group leader node (GL node), that is node1 in this example, run the following command on the group leader node (GL node):
    stopsrc -s IBM.VMR -c
    The process to stop the VMR daemon may take a few minutes.
  3. To check the group leader node (GL node), run the following command on node2:
    ksysmgr query cluster
    An output that is similar to the following screen is displayed:
    Name:                ksys_cluster
    State:               Online
    Type:                DR
    Ksysnodes:           node1:1:Online  
                         node2:2:Online   (Managing node)
    KsysState:           node1:1:Offline
                         node2:2:Online
    Now, the output displays node2 as the group leader node (GL node).
  4. To start the IBM.VMR daemon on the first node, that is node1, run the following command:
    startsrc -s IBM.VMR
  5. To check online status of both KSYS nodes, run the following command:
    ksysmgr query cluster
    An output that is similar to the following screen is displayed:
    Name:               ksys_cluster
    State:              Online
    Type:               DR
    Ksysnodes:          node1:1:Online
                        node2:2:Online  (Managing node)
    KsysState:          node1:1:Online
                        node2:2:Online