HP OpenVMS Systems Documentation

This chapter describes which tasks you should perform prior to beginning an upgrade. Tasks described in this chapter include:

• Reviewing notes, cautions, and restrictions
• Preparing to upgrade in a volume shadowing environment
• Backing up the current system disk
• Preparing the system disk for the upgrade
• Shutting down the system
• Using the preupgrade checklist

In addition to reviewing the information in this chapter, you might need to refer to the following sources of information as well:

• OpenVMS Version 7.3 Release Notes
• OpenVMS System Manager's Manual, for information about using AUTOGEN, modifying the system parameters file (MODPARAMS.DAT), and related operations
• OpenVMS System Management Utilities Reference Manual, for information about using system management utilities such as SYSMAN and ANALYZE/DISK_STRUCTURE
• OpenVMS Guide to System Security, for information about reestablishing your security environment after the upgrade

5.1 Notes, Cautions, and Restrictions

The Spiralog file system will not work with Compaq OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3. If Spiralog is installed on your system, you must uninstall it before upgrading to Compaq OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3.

5.1.2 Upgrade Paths

To upgrade to Version 7.3 of the Compaq OpenVMS Alpha operating system, you must be running Version 6.2x, 7.0, 7.1x, or 7.2x.

If you are upgrading in a cluster environment, rolling upgrades are supported from Version 7.1x and 7.2x of the Compaq OpenVMS Alpha operating system. See Chapter 6 for more information about upgrading clusters.

5.1.3 Update License

To upgrade to Compaq OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3, you must have an appropriate license. Compaq's software licenses grant the right to use the current version of a product or any previous version of the product at the time of purchase. If you have an Compaq OpenVMS Alpha license prior to Version 7.3 and are not covered by a Software Product Services agreement, which includes the right to use new versions (RTNV), you must purchase an Update License before upgrading to Compaq OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3.

If you do not have an Update License, please contact your Compaq support representative who will assist you in obtaining the correct Product Authorization Key (PAK) needed to access the OpenVMS operating system.

5.1.4 Files and Directories

If you choose not to install optional Compaq OpenVMS Alpha software during the upgrade, the upgrade procedure removes existing files for those components from the system disk.

If you have changed directory structure on your system disk, the upgrade procedure will not work correctly. Restore your system disk to a standard directory structure before you attempt an upgrade.

The Compaq OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3 upgrade procedure provides new files and directories in the directory [VMS$COMMON...]. If you had any special protections and access control lists (ACLs) before the upgrade, you need to reapply them to reestablish the security environment you had previously set up. For more information about creating and maintaining a secure environment, see the OpenVMS Guide to System Security.

5.1.5 Licenses and Layered Products

The upgrade procedure is designed so that you should not have to reinstall most layered products after the upgrade. However, you might need to reinstall certain layered products because of product-specific installation procedures.

The upgrade procedure leaves your Compaq OpenVMS Alpha license and layered product licenses intact. You do not need to reinstall these licenses after you upgrade.

5.2 Preparing to Upgrade in a Volume Shadowing Environment

Because you cannot upgrade the operating system on a shadowed system disk (the upgrade will fail), you need to disable shadowing on that disk and perform other operations before you can upgrade the operating system.

There are several methods for creating a nonshadowed target disk. This chapter describes how to change one of your existing shadowed system disks in a multimember shadow set to a nonshadowed disk that you can use as your target disk for the upgrade.

If you have a larger configuration with disks that you can physically access, you may want to use a copy of the system disk as your target disk. Volume Shadowing for OpenVMS describes two methods you can use to create this copy (using volume shadowing commands or BACKUP commands) and how to disable volume shadowing.

5.2.1 Creating a Nonshadowed Target Disk

Change one of your existing shadowed system disks to a nonshadowed disk as follows:

1. Shut down all systems booted from the shadowed system disk.
2. Perform a conversational boot (see Appendix A if necessary) on the system disk you have chosen for your target disk. For example:

   >>> BOOT -FLAGS 0,1 DKA100

3. At the SYSBOOT> prompt, enter the following command to disable volume shadowing on the disk:

   SYSBOOT> SET SHADOW_SYS_DISK 0

4. Enter the CONTINUE command to resume the boot procedure. For example:

   SYSBOOT> CONTINUE

5. After the boot completes, log in to the system.

After you have created a nonshadowed system disk that you can use for the upgrade, perform the additional preupgrade procedures described in the balance of this chapter.

5.2.2 Changing the Label

If you want to change the label on the upgrade disk, use the DCL command SET VOLUME/LABEL=volume-label device-spec[:] to perform this optional task. (The SET VOLUME/LABEL command requires write access [W] to the index file on the volume. If you are not the volume owner, you must have either a system UIC or the SYSPRV privilege.)

For OpenVMS Cluster systems, be sure that the volume label is a unique name across the cluster.

If you change the volume label, you must also register that change in the POLYCENTER Software Installation utility database. To do this, use the following command:

$ PRODUCT REGISTER VOLUME old-volume-label device-name

Note that you must supply the old volume label. The new volume label is found by using the device name.

SYSMAN> SET ENVIRONMENT/CLUSTER
SYSMAN> DO SET VOLUME/LABEL=new-label disk-device-name:

Be sure your system is set to boot from the upgrade disk by default. Use the SHOW BOOTDEF_DEV and SET BOOTDEF_DEV console commands to accomplish this task. (See Appendix A for more information.)

5.3 Backing Up the System Disk

Compaq strongly recommends that you make a backup copy of the system disk and, if your configuration allows it, upgrade the backup copy. (If there are problems, you will still have a working system disk.)

To back up the system disk:

1. Shut down the system (described in Appendix A).
2. Boot the operating system CD-ROM (locally or from the InfoServer).
3. Use the menu system to enter the DCL environment (option 7).
4. Mount the system disk and the target device on which you will make the backup copy.
5. Enter backup commands to back up the system disk to the target device.
6. Log out from the DCL environment.
7. Shut down the system by selecting option 8 from the menu.
8. Boot from the system disk.

For complete information about backup operations, including a description of an alternate method that does not require booting from the operating system CD-ROM, see Appendix B.

5.4 Preparing the System Disk

The following sections describe how to prepare the system disk for the upgrade. The operations include the following:

• Examining the system disk
• Checking the size of the system disk
• Verifying system parameters

Examine and repair (if necessary) the system disk using the ANALYZE/DISK_STRUCTURE command. (See the OpenVMS System Management Utilities Reference Manual for more information about this command.) Use the following procedure:

1. Analyze the system disk for inconsistencies and errors in the file structure by entering the following command:

   $ ANALYZE/DISK_STRUCTURE SYS$SYSDEVICE

   
   Ignore the following message:

   %ANALDISK-I-OPENQUOTA, error opening QUOTA.SYS

2. If you find any other errors on the system disk, repair the errors by entering the following command:

   $ ANALYZE/DISK_STRUCTURE/REPAIR SYS$SYSDEVICE

It is difficult to determine in advance how many blocks of disk space you will need for the upgrade. It depends on how many files you have on the target disk already and on how many components you select during the upgrade procedure. However, the following information will help:

• The maximum amount of disk space you will need is approximately 360,000 blocks, but your system might use substantially less.
• After you select the components you want installed on the system for the upgrade, the upgrade procedure calculates whether you have enough disk space, displaying the number of available blocks and the number required for the upgrade. If the procedure determines that your disk does not have enough space to perform the upgrade, it displays a message to alert you and allows you to terminate the upgrade so you can create more disk space and try the upgrade again.

To see how much space you have on the system disk, enter the following command:

$ SHOW DEVICE SYS$SYSDEVICE

Verify (and modify if necessary) system parameters, described as follows. (If necessary, see the OpenVMS System Manager's Manual for more information about modifying system parameters.) Any system parameters that you modified and did not enter in SYS$SYSTEM:MODPARAMS.DAT are lost during the upgrade. To retain these parameters, enter their names in SYS$SYSTEM:MODPARAMS.DAT and the value that AUTOGEN needs to add to the default minimum value. (When AUTOGEN runs after the upgrade, it uses the values in SYS$SYSTEM:MODPARAMS.DAT.)

For example, if you modified GBLPAGES by 128 pages above the default, add the following line to SYS$SYSTEM:MODPARAMS.DAT:

ADD_GBLPAGES=128

Compaq recommends that before upgrading your system you should have a recent SYS$SYSTEM:AGEN$FEEDBACK.DAT. In OpenVMS Cluster systems, there should be a copy of this file on each node. When the system (each system in a cluster) is rebooted after the upgrade, AUTOGEN is run. If a recent AGEN$FEEDBACK.DAT is available, it will be used. The data in this file will help AUTOGEN to set system parameters for your specific applications and workload.

You should create a current AGEN$FEEDBACK.DAT during a time when your system is running under a typical workload. When this condition exists, enter the following command:

$ SYS$UPDATE:AUTOGEN SAVPARAMS

This runs very quickly and should not affect the performance of your system while it executes.

You can also specify the SAVE_FEEDBACK option when you execute SYS$SYSTEM:SHUTDOWN.COM. However, the data captured my not fully reflect the typical workload on your system.

5.6 Finish and Shutdown

Continue the preupgrade tasks as follows, depending on whether you are upgrading in a standalone or OpenVMS Cluster environment:

5.7 Preupgrade Checklist

• Review all cover letters and the release notes.
• Review all cautions and notes.
• If your system disk is part of a shadow set, create a nonshadowed system disk to upgrade.
• Set up your system to record the upgrade procedure on either a hardcopy terminal or a printer attached to the console terminal. If you do not do this, the screen messages will be lost. You will need a transcript in case there is a problem during the upgrade. For information on how to record the procedure, see the hardware manuals that came with your Alpha computer.
• Make a backup copy of the system disk.
• Examine and repair (if necessary) the system disk using the ANALYZE/DISK_STRUCTURE command.
• Check the size of the system disk.
• Verify system parameters.
• Shut down the system (if you are upgrading in a standalone environment).
• If you are upgrading an OpenVMS Cluster system, go to Chapter 6. If you are not upgrading an OpenVMS Cluster system, go to Chapter 7 to begin the upgrade procedure.

This chapter describes how to prepare to upgrade in an OpenVMS Cluster environment, depending on the type of upgrade you perform and whether you need to add any new computers to the cluster.

When you upgrade the operating system in an OpenVMS Cluster environment, be sure the following information is available to review:

• The cover letters and the software product descriptions included with your distribution kit
• OpenVMS Version 7.3 Release Notes
• OpenVMS Cluster Systems
• Guidelines for OpenVMS Cluster Configurations
• OpenVMS Version 7.3 New Features and Documentation Overview

Compaq OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3 and Compaq OpenVMS VAX Version 7.3 provide two levels of support for mixed-version and mixed-architecture OpenVMS Cluster systems. These two support types are warranted and migration.

Warranted support means that Compaq has fully qualified the two versions coexisting in an OpenVMS Cluster and will answer all problems identified by customers using these configurations.

Migration support is a superset of the Rolling Upgrade support provided in earlier releases of OpenVMS and is available for mixes that are not warranted. Migration support means that Compaq has qualified the versions for use together in configurations that are migrating in a staged fashion to a newer version of Compaq OpenVMS VAX or to Compaq OpenVMS Alpha. Problem reports submitted against these configurations will be answered by Compaq. However, in exceptional cases Compaq may request that you move to a warranted configuration as part of answering the problem.

Compaq supports only two versions of OpenVMS running in a cluster at the same time, regardless of architecture. Migration support helps customers move to warranted OpenVMS Cluster pairs. Table 6-1 shows the level of support provided for all possible version pairings.

If you need to add a new computer supported by OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3 to an existing OpenVMS Cluster configuration, Compaq supports two options, listed in the following preferred order:

1. Upgrade the entire cluster to OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3 and add the new computer as a member.
2. If you need to keep some systems in the cluster running an older version of OpenVMS Alpha, you must upgrade a system disk in the cluster to OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3 using the rolling upgrade procedure. Then boot the new computer into the cluster using that upgraded system disk.

There are two types of cluster upgrades: concurrent and rolling. The type of upgrade you use depends on whether you want to maintain the availability of the cluster during the upgrade and whether you have more than one system disk. Review this chapter and then perform the preliminary tasks for the upgrade procedure (concurrent or rolling) that best suits your configuration.

6.4 Concurrent Upgrade

This section describes the following:

• How a concurrent upgrade works
• Preparing your system for a concurrent upgrade

6.4.1 How a Concurrent Upgrade Works

If all Alpha systems in the OpenVMS Cluster environment are booted from one system disk, you must perform a concurrent upgrade.

6.4.2 Preparing Your System for a Concurrent Upgrade

To prepare for a concurrent upgrade:

1. Log in locally to the SYSTEM account.
2. Shut down all systems by entering the following command on each system (satellites first, then the boot nodes):

   $ @SYS$SYSTEM:SHUTDOWN

3. When the procedure asks if an automatic system reboot should be performed, enter N (No) and press the Return key.
4. Choose the CLUSTER_SHUTDOWN option.
5. When the shutdown procedure is finished on all nodes, halt each system by entering Ctrl/P or by pressing the Halt button.¹
6. If you have only one system disk for your cluster, go to Chapter 7 to begin the upgrade procedure.
   If you have more than one system disk, make sure that you have performed the preupgrade tasks on each system disk that you will be upgrading. Then go to Chapter 7 and perform an upgrade on each system disk. You do not have to reboot the operating system CD-ROM for each upgrade. You only need to choose option 1 from the menu for each upgrade.
   After the upgrade is complete, you will be instructed to reboot each computer in the OpenVMS Cluster environment before beginning other postupgrade procedures.

6.5 Rolling Upgrade

This section describes the following:

• How a rolling upgrade works
• Notes and restrictions
• Preparing your system for a rolling upgrade