Advice on moving RS6000 servers

[testemalel]

Hi,

We are going to be moving our RS6000 server from our old offices to a new building about 10 miles away. This server is about 7-8 years old and has been constantly running all this time, apart from the odd powerdown for an hour or so.

Does anyone have any experience in moving these types of machines. Would just a full backup, mksysb, powerdown and carefully load into a truck be enough or is there a set proccedure that people have followed in the past.

Specific concerns I do have are

1) Having the machines powered down for so long, could the cooling cause some of the boards to break down. Should the machines be left for some time before moving them to let them cool down fully.

2) Is there any way to protect the hard drives from the rigours of the truck journey.

3) Are there any checks that could be run on powering up to ensure everything is fine.

I'd be gratefull for any advice

Thanks,

 

[MoshiachNow]

Hi,

1.I would not worry about letting the machine to cool down.
It's not an issue.

2.If the disks are removable - transfer them OUTSIDE the computer.
Otherwise just use a computer professional packaging.

3.Just power on in the new place,and check errpt for problems.
Run a good "diag" on all HW as well. "Long live king Moshiach !"
h

http://www.noahide.com/movement.htm

 

[Guest_imported]

testemalel,

if you're in doubt, specially if it's old and remember the "old" external devices attached by SCSI cables? why not attach or put a marker in every node before you pullout or unplugged a particular device from the system.

foremost - don't disassembled without having a proper backup. you may try some of the following;

1. use "mksysb" for bootable copy of "rootvg"
2. use "savevg" for saving a specific volume group
3. cpio to copy file/s & directories
4. tar to copy file/s directories (but i think, won't backup "/dev" directory)

goodluck.

 

[Yegolev]

My first bit of advice is that problems are more likely to occur after a reboot. So do that before you move anything.

Label your cables.

As for packing/moving... if you saw how I used to pack and ship these things you would not worry. =) At least one actually fell out of the back of a truck, seems like the delivery fellows forgot to strap it to the truck wall AND forgot to close the door. Of course it didn't work after skidding down the highway, but that might tell you about the general level of shipping care. Forklift operators are usually concerned about just getting them onto the truck before 5pm. =) Modern disks have auto-park, but anything you can do to prevent vibrations and impacts to the whole system would be good. No reason to hire someone if it's just one machine and you have a pickup truck and some blankets and bungee cord.

If you have a service contract you probably want to tell IBM that you have moved. IBM Certified -- AIX 4.3 Obfuscation

 

[aixmurderer]

If its an old MCA machine it may be a good idea just to check that none of the cards became unseated before starting up again. IBM Certified Confused - MQSeries
IBM Certified Flabbergasted - AIX 5 pSeries System Administration