How To
Summary
I need to upgarde VIOS to a new version, e.g. from 3.1 to 4.1
Objective
This document explains how to prepare a customized VIOS image to be used for a VIOS upgrade.
VIOS image preparation
You can use one of the following VIOS images to deploy in your environment:
- VIOS mksysb image that is supplied by IBM®. Refer to How to build the mksysb file for VIOS 3.1 Migration / Installation ?
Customized VIOS image that is prepared at your location based on your requirement.
Typically, you can download the VIOS mksysb image from the IBM website and customize it by installing third-party software. Some such software applications that you might want to include with the VIOS image are, Multipath application drivers, Security profiles, Performance monitoring tools, and so on. After you install the necessary applications or drivers, a customized VIOS mksysb image can be created using backupios command. Then, you can use the customized VIOS image to deploy on all the Virtual I/O Servers across the data center.
Environment
PowerVM VIOS 3.1 and 4.1
Steps
How to Create a Custom mksysb To Upgrade a PowerVM VIOS from 3.1 to 4.1 using viosupgrade command
- Download the VIOS 4.1 installation image from the Entitlement System Support.
- Create a new VIOS partition (temporarily) and install VIOS 4.1 using the image from step 1.
- Install the additional software, such as storage multipath software, etc.
- Create the custom mksysb by using the backupios command:
$ backupios -mksysb -file filename.mksysb
This is the image that will need to be used with viosupgrade -i command.
Other Possible Situations
Scenario1
If you do not have spare physical resources to create a new VIOS partition temporarily, consider doing a manual upgrade on the secondary VIOS (VIOS2), and in the process, use VIOS2 to build the custom mksysb, which can then be used to upgrade VIOS1.
Say for example, you have VIOS1 and VIOS2 running 3.1:
On VIOS2
1. Create up-to-date backups of the VIOS/OS (using backupios command) and the virtual configuration (using viosbr command) and move them to a safe location, such as an AIX NIM server or NFS server
1. The backupios image can be used to restore the VIOS/OS
2. The viosbr backup image can be used to restore the virtual configuration, which is what will be used later.
2. Install VIOS 4.1 to VIOS2
3. Install all additional software.
4. Create the custom mksysb and move it to a safe location and to VIOS1 (in preparation to upgrade VIOS1)
5. At this point, you can restore the virtual configuration to VIOS2 using the viosbr backup image created in step 1.2
Once you have verified the client partitions have network and storage access back from VIOS2, proceed to upgrade VIOS1 using the custom mksysb created in step 4.
Scenario 2
Say for example, VIOS 3.1 is on hdisk0, and the VIOS upgrade was already attempted to 4.1 on hdisk1. However, after the last reboot (from hdisk1), the upgrade failed during the restore process because the storage mulitpath software was missing (no custom mksysb image was used). Consider the following:
1. While the VIOS partition remains booted from 4.1 (hdisk1), attempt to manually restore the VIOS network configuration using the latest viosbr backup image:
$ viosbr -restore -file /home/padmin/cfgbackups/<Latest_viosbr_backup_filename> -type net
If this fails to restore the VIOS network configuration, manually configure the VIOS IP address.
2. Install all additional software.
3. Create the custom mksysb and move it to a safe location.
4. Boot back from the 3.1 disk: $ bootlist -mode normal <3.1_hdisk_rootvg>
5. Remove the alternate (4.1) rootvg:
$ oem_setup_env
# alt_rootvg_op -X altinst_rootvg
# exit
$ cleandisk -s hdisk1 (where hdisk1 contains the alternate rootvg/4.1)
6. Retried the viosupgrade using the custom mksysb created in step 3.
Related Information
Document Location
Worldwide
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Document Information
Modified date:
11 May 2026
UID
ibm17269956