On 5/28 I wrote:
> I plan to upgrade our production server (2100 4/275 ) from 3.0B
> to 3.2D very soon (this to support DE500 ether card). If you have done
> this, is there anything beyond the V3.5 firmware upgrade that I need be
> concerned about? Looks to me like a smooth operation, but I would like
> some feedback from any poor slobs that found out otherwise before I
> am counted as one myself!
I did not hear any horror stories from anybody, so I just went on
ahead. This upgrade went smoothly. The whole operation (steps 4 - 10
below) took about seven hours. Just two minor gotchas:
After restoring the root file system for 3.2C (which is installed
before adding the 3.2D supplement), the install program displays
how the default boot path and flags (boot_osflags and bootdef_dev)
should be set and then halts the system, waiting for you to set
the variables properly and reboot (see page 5-14,15 of Installation
Guide). Unfortunately, it displays this information for no longer than 5
seconds! If your back is turned, forget it. I had to repeat the root load
because I missed it!
Also, after everything was upgraded, I had no network access. After some
thorough poking around, I discovered that my firmware upgrade (which
must precede the OS upgrade) had reset the ewa0_mode SRM console variable
to the default "aui", while I am hooked up to 10BaseT (set to "twisted").
Easy fix, but it threw me for a while.
These two gotchas cost me about 45 minutes.
Just FYI, I made up a short procedure that I followed to make this
happen as quickly as possible, bringing us back to our site-specific
configuration without alot of head scratching. Your's will differ
somewhat, but mine may prove helpful -
1 - Print out the "Loadable Firmware Update Utility User Guide and Release
Notes" found on the firmware CD and read it through.
2 - Make a list of site-specific files & directories and store them in
a file ("site"). Mine is fairly short, and includes a few mount points and
symbolic links. Make sure that this file is in /, 'cause it is used later
while running single-user:
/etc/hosts
/etc/fstab
/etc/auto.home
/etc/auto.direct
/etc/auto.master
/etc/group
/etc/motd
/etc/passwd
/etc/exports
/etc/fdmns
/etc/defaultdomain
/etc/rc.config
/etc/sysconfigtab
/etc/hosts.equiv
/etc/printcap
/etc/services
/usr/share/lib/termcap
/sbin/init.d/informix
/sbin/rc3.d/S96informix
/.cshrc
/.login
/.rhosts
/.profile
/opt
/usr1
/usr/local
/index
/data8
/eng
/dbtmp
/usr/dbtmp
/deceng
/usr/opt
/usr/atomshlib
/usr/sys/conf/NITRO.29may96
/usr/sys/patches
/var/spool/cron
/var/adm/sendmail
/var/adm/lmf
3 - backup /, /usr
4 - go single user and tar "site" files to tape (so mount points can be
tar'ed without taping a mounted filesystems):
# tar -cvf $TAPE -R /site
5 - Upgrade firmware.
6 - Run ECU to configure EISA (if necessary. I added a SCSI board).
7 - Install 3.2C per install guide.
8 - Install 3.2D kit from second CD and install guide.
9 - restore "upgrade" files from tape
10 - modify config file and rebuild kernel
Received on Thu Jun 06 1996 - 02:00:09 NZST