Alt Disk Install

[Mag0007]

I am planning to Migrate from 4.3.3 to 5.2 using the alt disk install method.

Anyone try this before? Your opinions would be helpful!

TIA

 

[fjw999]

I did a 4.3.3 -> 5.3 alt disk migration using a nim server and it worked a charm. I did it on a live system and used two disks from our san as the alt disks. Once finished you can just boot from the san disks and perform some testing on the upgraded OS. The good thing about this method is you can always boot back to 4.3.3 if there are any problems.

I would say that the live system I did it on was not a heavily used system so I couldn't comment on any performance issues you may come up agaist using this method on a heavily used system.

Hope this helps

 

[Mag0007]

fajum:
Thanks for the feedback!

Question about your NIM server, does this include a bootp server or just a NFS server with your bff image on it?

 

[fjw999]

Just a NFS server with bff's on it.

 

[Mag0007]

THANK YOU!

 

[Mag0007]

One more question:
What if you have EMC installed? What happens to the filesets?
Usually, I remove the filesets, migrate AIX, and reinstall the filesets.

Any advice?

 

[fjw999]

Not sure about EMC. I was using a FASTt and had no problem. I would think that if you put the newer EMC fileset into the bff resource on the NIM server then they should be updated when you do the migration - but I can't say for sure.

If your worried about your EMC another approach would be to split you rootvg(if using 2 disks or more) and perform the NIM alternate disk install onto the spare scsi disk then boot to the new disk and remove/reinstall emc fileset's. The problem with this is that you have the risk of running your rootvg on 1 disk until your happy with the upgrade.