IBM Support

How To Migrate SDDPCM to AIXPCM

Question & Answer


Question

How to migrate SDDPCM to AIXPCM with or without SAN Boot?

Cause

Conditions where SDDPCM and host attachment shall be removed:

  • Performing AIX migration without taking into account the need to migrate SDDPCM and host attachment first, results in additional downtime to remove and/or upgrade SDDPCM to match the new OS level.

Example: devices.sddpcm.61.rte on AIX 7.1 system

  • The P9 series host architecture does not use SDDPCM and host attachment for multi-pathing failover and recovery. Instead, the recommendation is to use AIXPCM. Therefore, when migrating to this platform, users should opt to use AIXPCM - Native MPIO. If SDDPCM and host attachment were installed on P9, they should be removed by running the manage_disk_drivers command explained in the Answer section below.
  • An important condition for the removal of SDDPCM and host attachment is predicated by the recommendation IBM has made to migrate from SDDPCM to AIXPCM. This recommendation is documented in the link references below.

Answer

Remove SDDPCM and host attachment from host LPARs, allowing for AIXPCM to manage disk multi-pathing by default. 

The following link stipulates support for SDDPCM will be removed for IBM storage in June of 2020:

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/1106937?myns=s035&mync=E&cm_sp=s035-_-NULL-_-E

The link provided below has the steps needed to accomplish this activity:

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/migrate-aixpcm-using-managediskdrivers-command

Contact the IBM Support Center if there are questions or concerns.

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Document Information

Modified date:
01 June 2025

UID

ssg1S1010646

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