Aix TL Upgrade.odt

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Aix TL Upgradation procedure

Before applying a TL, always create a backup of you current installation, and plan on a worst casescenarioon restoring that backup if needed to rollback the system to the previous level.

After a valid backup image is available, the upgrade process can be started.

Also, it is a good practice to create a health checklist, that is, save as much as information from thesystem (netstat, ifconfig, lsvg, lsdev, lscfg, prtconf, etc.) and keep it somewhere other than the serverthat is being upgraded. Keep in mind that this information is only going to be used as support materialin case of problems.

Make sure all interim fixes (ifix) have been removed from the system. Listing 1 shows how to checkfor installed ifixes, and listing 2 shows how to uninstall an ifix:

Listing 1. Checking for installed ifixes# emgr l

Listing 2. Removing an ifix# emgr r L

For further information on how to use the emgr command, check IBM documentation or the man

pages.

If you are updating to AIX 5.3 TL10 or AIX 6.1 TL3, these steps do not need to be executed sinceinstallp and emgr have been enhanced to automatically remove the ifix when present in the TL.

Otherwise, the ifixes will have to be manually removed.

Check if all filesets are applied and are valid, as shown in Listing 3.

Listing 3. Checking installed filesets consistency# instfix i | grep ML# lppchk v

If problems are reported from running these commands, stop now and fix the problems. Applying a TLto an inconsistent AIX will not only damage the operating system, but it can also make it unbootable.

Next, all filesets in the APPLIED state needs to be COMMITTED. To commit them, follow theexample in Listing 4.

Listing 4. Committing all APPLIED filesets# installp -c -f -g X


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Or, use smitty commit and follow the instructions on the screen.

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Alternate diskThis is one of the most used practices to apply a new TL. It is referenced in IBM technical documentsand books. Using an alternate disk gives the following options:

1. Using a secondary disk and apply the TL without disruption, only rebooting after the TLupgrade is doneIBM recommends that all processes be terminated and users to be logged off(this procedure is covered in this article).

2. Rebooting to a secondary disk and running the TL upgrade to what was the primary disksomesystem administrator often use this to make sure the system is running on a consistent state andhas no problems or malfunctions after a reboot is performed.

Either way, a free disk is needed to install using alternate disk.

For this alternate disk update method, the server to be updated has a rootvg with two mirrored disks.Therefore, unmirror it before beginning and use the second disk for the alternate disk installation, asshown in Listing 5.

Listing 5. Unmirroring rootvg# unmirrorvg rootvg

If a secondary dump device is configured to use the secondary disk, move its LPs to the remaining diskusing migratepv or unconfigure the secondary dump device.

Remove the disk from the rootvg (assuming that X is the disk device number), as seen on Listing 6.

Listing 6. Removing disk from the rootvg# reducevg rootvg hdiskX

Now create the alternate disk and apply the TL update to it. The TL files can be placed locally, ascovered in this article, in a remote NFS share or in a CD-ROM.

Smitty fastpath smitty alt_clone can be used, or the alt_disk_copy command line. Figure 1

shows the initial smitty screen.

smitty alt_clone screen

Remember, if you are unsure about a field, pressing F1 provides help.

Moving forward, use hdisk1 and the TL files are locally under the /stage_TL filesystem

All operations will be logged to /var/adm/ras/alt_disk_inst.log. To watch its progress, enter tail fto it.
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The server will need to be rebooted after the update process, so make sure the bootlist is showing thetarget alternate disk as the first boot device (as seen in Listing 7).

Example 7. Checking boot device order# bootlist m normal ohdisk1 blv=hd5

Once the server has been rebooted, issue oslevel s or oslevel r and check if the OS level isnow at the updated TL, as demonstrated in Listing 8.

Listing 8. Check running AIX version# oslevel s5300-10-01-0921

If the update is considered successful, the rootvg can be mirrored again. Listing 9 shows how to mirrorthe rootvg again.

Listing 9. Mirroring back rootvg# exportvg old_rootvg# extendvg f rootvg hdisk0# mirrorvg rootvg

Create a new boot image on hdisk0 and add it to the boot list, as seen in Listing 10.

Listing 10. Creating a boot image# bosboot ad /dev/hdisk0# bootlist m normal o hdisk0 hdisk1

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Multibos

This is by far the coolest way to have AIX upgraded. It was introduced with AIX 5.3 TL3. This is greatin cases where only one disk is available on rootvg and no free disks for alternate disks are available.

Multibos creates and maintain two different and bootable AIX instances within the same rootvg. It issimilar to alternate disk. In this case, the biggest difference is that multibos will create and copy onlythe following Logical Volumes (LVs):

/;

/usr;

/var;

/opt, and;

hd5 (Boot logical volume).


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All others LVs will be shared with the original root volume group, although more logical volumes canbe specified and copied. Multibos supports a new TL update, but AIX version upgrades are notsupported by multibos.

In addition to the tasks mentioned in the Before you begin section, make sure that enough free diskspace to copy each BOS logical volume to the same root volume group disk is available, otherwisemultibos will not work.

Create a new standby BOS instance by running the multibos command. Check its options anddocumentation before you begin. Listing 11 shows how to create a new standby BOS instance.

Listing 11. Preview of multibos standby BOS creation# multibos sXp

This shows a preview of what multibos is about to execute. For further information always check itslog file (/etc/multibos/logs/op.alog). If everything seems to be OK with the preview, execute it againwithout the preview flag (-p) as shown in Listing 12.

Example 12. Multibos standby BOS creation# multibos sX

It will take a few minutes to copy all the contents, and after its completed all new LVs will be prefixedby "bos_". Listing 13 shows how the rootvg will look like after the new standby BOS has been created.

Listing 13. Multibos standby BOS created# lsvg l rootvg

rootvg:LV NAME TYPE LPs PPs PVs LV STATE MOUNT POINThd5 boot 1 1 1 closed/syncd N/Ahd6 paging 192 192 1 open/syncd N/Ahd8 jfs2log 1 1 1 open/syncd N/Ahd4 jfs2 1 1 1 open/syncd /hd2 jfs2 17 17 1 open/syncd /usrhd9var jfs2 8 8 1 open/syncd /varhd3 jfs2 4 4 1 open/syncd /tmphd1 jfs2 1 1 1 open/syncd /homehd10opt jfs2 1 1 1 open/syncd /optlvdump1 sysdump 22 22 1 open/syncd N/Alvdump2 sysdump 22 22 1 open/syncd N/A

bos_hd5 boot 1 1 1 closed/syncd N/Abos_hd4 jfs2 1 1 1 open/syncd /bos_instbos_hd2 jfs2 17 17 1 open/syncd /bos_inst/usrbos_hd9var jfs2 8 8 1 open/syncd /bos_inst/varbos_hd10opt jfs2 1 1 1 open/syncd /bos_inst/opt

It is a good idea to enter the newly created BOS instance shell and verify its current TL, as shown inListing 14. To exit from the multibos environment just type 'exit':
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Listing 14. Entering the multibos shell and checking AIX version# multibos SInitializing multibos methods ...Initializing log /etc/multibos/logs/op.alog ...Gathering system information ...

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+Multibos Shell Operation+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+Verifying operation parameters ...

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+Mount Processing+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+Mounting all standby BOS file systems ...Mounting /bos_instMounting /bos_inst/usrMounting /bos_inst/varMounting /bos_inst/opt

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+Multibos Root Shell+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+Starting multibos root shell ...Active boot logical volume is hd5.Script command is started. The file is /etc/multibos/logs/scriptlog.090904032855.txt.MULTIBOS> oslevel s5300-06-08-0831

If all prerequisite tasks have been completed (see Before you beginsection), the TL update can be

started. The command used in the Listing 15 will update your newly created standby BOS instance.

Listing 15. Updating the standby BOS instance# multibos Xac l /stage_TL

After the command is completed, enter it again on the multibos shell and check the current TL, as seenin Listing 16.

Listing 16. Entering multibos shell

# multibos SInitializing multibos methods ...Initializing log /etc/multibos/logs/op.alog ...Gathering system information ...

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+Multibos Shell Operation+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+Verifying operation parameters ...

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
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Mount Processing+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+Mounting all standby BOS file systems ...Mounting /bos_instMounting /bos_inst/usrMounting /bos_inst/varMounting /bos_inst/opt

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+Multibos Root Shell+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+Starting multibos root shell ...Active boot logical volume is hd5.Script command is started. The file is /etc/multibos/logs/scriptlog.090904035718.txt.MULTIBOS> oslevel s5300-10-01-0921

Configure and ensure the boot list is pointing to the standby BOS as the first boot device, as shown inListing 17.

Listing 17. Setting up boot to your new standby BOS instance# multibos B

# bootlist m normal ohdisk0 blv=bos_hd5hdisk0 blv=hd5

If the update procedure failed and a fallback is needed, set and verify the boot list back to the previousboot LV and rebootthis will bring back the older AIX version. This procedure is shown in Listing 18.

Listing 18. Changing the boot device back to your original rootvg# bootlist m normal o hdisk0 blv=hd5 hdisk0 blv=bos_hd5# bootlist m normal ohdisk0 blv=hd5hdisk0 blv=bos_hd5

But, if no problems were found and the standby BOS is not necessary any longer, it can be removed byissuing the command shown in Listing 19.

Listing 19. Removing the old rootvg# multibos -R

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Same disk

This is the simplest method available. The downside of this method is that two reboots are needed in


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case of a fallback.

In this example, a backup to an alternate disk will be done before the update process. So, jump tosmitty alt_clone again, as shown in the Figure 3 and select the desired backup disk and hit enterwith the default values.

smitty alt_clone menu

The command line can also be used, as shown in Listing 20.

Listing 20. Command-line for cloning rootvg# alt_disk_copy -P "all" -d "hdisk1" -B

To follow the progress of the alternate task look at the alternate disk log file, /var/adm/ras/alt_disk_inst.log.

After the alternate disk is done, the update process can be performed. Use the smitty fastpath smittyupdate_all or from the command line use install_all_updates. Listing 21 shows theupdate process.

Enter the directory containing the TL filesets:

Listing 21. Same disk update process>

# cd /stage_TL

And create a Table of Contents file (ToC):# inutoc .

While still inside the directory containing the filesets, run our smitty update_all command asshown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: smitty update_all initial screenThe first screen will ask where the filesets are, add a . (dot) and press enter.

Figure 5 shows how the smitty menu will look like.

Figure 5. smitty update_all menu with options

After the update process is done, reboot the server.

Once the server has been rebooted, issue oslevel s or oslevel r and check if the OS level isnow at the TL level that was applied as observed in Listing 22.


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Listing 22: Checking AIX version after update# oslevel s5300-10-01-0921

If the update was considered successfully the rootvg can be mirrored again. Follow the example in

Listing 23 to re-mirror the rootvg and create a boot image on hdisk1 and add it to the boot list.

Listing 23. Re-mirroring the rootvg# exportvg alt_inst_rootvg# extendvg f rootvg hdisk1# mirrorvg rootvg# bosboot ad /dev/hdisk1# bootlist m normal o hdisk0 hdisk1

Using a NIM Server

This is also one of most popular ways of updating an AIX server. However, in this case an up andrunning NIM Server is needed.

This article does not intend to show how to configure a NIM server or its pieces: spots, lpp_sources,machines, etc.

As was done for the previous methods, refer to the Before you begin section to review if allrequirements were met. If yes, follow the example in Figure 6 to get started:

Figure 6. Entering smitty nim menu

This will enter the main NIM server smitty menu as shown in Figure 7. On the first screen selectPerform NIM Software Installation and Maintenance Tasks

Figure 7. Main NIM server smitty menu

Next, select Alternate Disk Installation, as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8. Select "Alternate Disk Installation"

As "Alternate Disk Installation" option is selected chose "Clone rootvg to anAlternate Disk".

Figure 9. Select "Clone the rootvg to an Alternate Disk"

The next screen is where all the settings are done.

Select the client machine (server to be updated), type the disk which the TL will be appliedsince thisis going to be a alternate disk, make sure the disk is not used by any other volume group (VG). See
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Figure 10 for all options available on this menu.

Figure 10. NIM settings for Alternate Disk Install

After you confirm and enter the values, NIM will automatically start updating the client.

Its progress can be seen from the client by looking at two log files (/var/adm/ras/nimlog and/var/adm/ras/alt_disk_inst.log).

During the update process the screen won't be showing anything, but the process will be running onbackground. Make sure the process is completed before a reboot is done on the serverlook at the logfiles.

After the update process is done, reboot the server.

Once the server has been rebooted, issue oslevel s or oslevel r and check if the OS level isnow at the TL level that was applied.

# oslevel s5300-10-01-0921

If the update is considered successful, the rootvg can be mirrored again:

# exportvg alt_inst_rootvg# extendvg f rootvg hdisk1# mirrorvg rootvg

Create a new boot image on hdisk1 and add it to the boot list:

# bosboot ad /dev/hdisk1

# bootlist m normal o hdisk0 hdisk1

Note: - After upgrading the TL on server we will submit a SESDR request to update the TL info inSERDR database.

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Aix TL Upgrade.odt