Sorry this is late, but here's the responses I've collected:
My Original.....
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From: Wayne Sweatt
Sent: Monday, December 16, 1996 4:16 PM
To: 'alpha-osf-managers_at_ornl.gov'
Subject: Upgrading 3.0,1 to 3.2g with Advfs
Two weeks ago , I took over 4 Alpha 2100 servers, having never had ANY
Digital Unix (OSF/1) experience at all. My background in Unix SysAd. Had all
been SUN and SGI. I have a need now to upgrade two of the servers from
3.0 and 3.1 both up to 3.2g. The thing that scares me a little is of course
what every SysAd has, losing data and not being able to restore.
Both servers are installed with advfs filesystems - root,usr and the critical one-
Oracle data. They are being backed up to a TZ86 tape loader with Networker.
Having being used to UFS filesystems, my first question is:
How will the ADVFS restore from tape differ from a UFS one? That's just in
case I need too after the upgrade.
Question number two:
What will the procedure be to upgrade? Will I use a 3.2g install CD and will
it prompt me for an initial install OR an upgrade?
I'm assuming that I can preserve my Oracle partition or volume rather. It's the
root and usr particulars that I'm worried about. Things like losing my licensing
information, or any config files that I want to be left alone.
Any hints I can get to keep downtime low would be greatly appreciated.
Wayne Sweatt
***************************
AND Here's my responses.....
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From: alan_at_nabeth.cxo.dec.com
Sent: Monday, December 16, 1996 4:59 PM
To: Wayne Sweatt
Subject: Re: Upgrading 3.0,1 to 3.2g with Advfs
re: #1
Networker uses it own commands to restore files from
backup media. They don't care what kind of file system
it was. What they won't do is create the file systems
for you. And it takes a bit of installation or other
restoration to get NSR to the point that it can be used
to restore a system disk. You'd be well advised to use
vdump to make simple backups of the system disk. Then,
if you have to restore you can use those rather than
worry about to get NSR to the point of being able to use
it to restore.
To restore a root domain from scratch:
a. Boot the distribution CDROM and chose the system
management option.
b. Label the disk, using the option to use the AdvFS
boot blocks:
# disklabel -wr -t advfs /dev/rrz#c disk-type
c. Create the root domain:
# mkfdmn /dev/rz#a root_domain
d. Create the fileset:
# mkfset root_domain file-set-name
e. Mount the file system:
# mount root_domain#file-set-name /mnt
f. Restore:
# cd /mnt
# vrestore "suitable options"
You'll want to use the correct file-set-name in my examples,
but I haven't have an AdvFS root system handy do see what they
use.
re: #2
You can't there from here, with what you have. To get
to V3.2G you have to have V3.2C or one of the intermediate
versions after it that support upgrades to V3.2G. To get
to V3.2C you need to have V3.2 (no letter, or maybe A or B).
If you can find a base V3.2 distribution, it should allow
upgrading from V3.0 (there was no V3.1 that I knew of).
The V3.2G distribution includes the base V3.2C software
that will upgrade from V3.2.
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From: Jeff Penfold
Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 1996 3:47 AM
To: 'Wayne Sweatt'
Subject: RE: Upgrading 3.0,1 to 3.2g with Advfs
Hi,
I've been faced with a similar situation before - your biggest problem is that
you'll not be able to restore your system partitions if the upgrade goes wrong
(since Networker will not be installed and running!). My advice would be to
use the command "vdump" to dump at least the system partitions, by hand,
before doing the upgrade (and the data partitions if they will fit onto individual
tapes). The command "vrestore" should be available from the CDROM if you
boot off it which will allow you to recover the situation. However, in the case
of a real problem you still have the problem of re-creating the necessary AdvFS
file systems.
From my point of view it is un-wise to use AdvFS for root and usr partitions (you
should not need to "expand" these partitions, and they are rarely big enough to
cause a significant delay on boot if there is a problem. I am tempted to apply
the same logic to the var partition - but this really depends on your use of the
system. Obviously once using ufs for the system partitions it becomes a much
less complicated task to recover from a disaster scenario - and one which is much
more familiar to an "generic" unix administrator.
Back to the core comments here:
To cover your back use vdump (and matching vrestore) command just in case
upgrade goes wrong, the only fly in the ointment is that I can't remember if 3.0
definitly had these commands, I would assume so since 3.0 has AdvFS.
You perform an upgrade from your existing, running OS (you do not boot from the
new CDROM). The docs with the 3.2g CDROM should detail what you need to do.
Seem to have "waffled" on here a bit .. hope these comments help in some way.
Jeff.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff Penfold, Technical Support Specialist, Image and Workflow.
Commercial Union Assurance, 431 Godstone Rd, Whyteleafe, Surrey, CR3 0YQ. UK.
Phone: +44 (0)171 283 7500 x 24795, Email: Jeff.Penfold_at_comunion.demon.co.uk
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My opinions, my thoughts, my words. Not necessarily my employers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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From: Karen Byrd
Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 1996 9:12 AM
To: sweatt_at_dps.state.nm.us
Subject: Re: Upgrading 3.0,1 to 3.2g with Advfs
>How will the ADVFS restore from tape differ from a UFS one? That's just in
>case I need too after the upgrade.
As far as I know the only thing that's different is that for advfs
you use vdump/vrestore. I would read the vdump/vrestore man pages carefully
if I were you before I tackled the upgrade.
>Question number two:
>
> What will the procedure be to upgrade? Will I use a 3.2g install CD and will
>it prompt me for an initial install OR an upgrade?
First of all are you completely sure you can go directly to 3.2g
from 3.0? You may need an earlier version of 3.2(maybe 3.2c)
installed first.
You need to obtain all the install docs/release notes pertaining to the
interrum releases between 3.0 and 3.2G also. At least I would
if I were you. In the docs it explains in great detail the difference
between full installs and upgrades and how to perform both.
___________________________________
| |
|Karen Byrd, Alpha Sys./Net. Manager|
|University of Pennsylvania |
|Computing & Information Technology |
|(Medical School Computer Facility) |
|Philadelphia, PA 19104 (USA) |
|E-mail: byrd_at_mscf.med.upenn.edu |
| byrd_at_info.med.upenn.edu |
| karen_at_mail.med.upenn.edu |
|FAX: (215)573-2277 |
|Phone: (215)898-6865 |
|___________________________________|
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From: Karl Marble
Sent: Monday, December 16, 1996 5:32 PM
To: Wayne Sweatt
Subject: Re: Upgrading 3.0,1 to 3.2g with Advfs
Wayne,
>How will the ADVFS restore from tape differ from a UFS one? That's just in
>case I need too after the upgrade.
AdvFS restore (vrestore) is almost identical to a restore from a 'dump.'
It even has the interactive functionality that 'restore' has. The secret
is to NEVER use restore, only vrestore. This is because 'vrestore' knows
how to handle file domains and filesets.
>Question number two:
>
> What will the procedure be to upgrade? Will I use a 3.2g install CD and will
>it prompt me for an initial install OR an upgrade?
You might want to double check this against the installtion docs because
the earliest OS version I've upgraded from was OSF 3.2B. I think you have
to install DU 3.2C first and then install 3.2G, the process should be:
- boot the system into single user mode
- mount the filesystems (you can then unmount that Oracle partition to be safe)
- mount the CD
- use the command '/sbin/installupdate' (this installs 3.2C)
- change to the 3.2G directory on the cd, then type 'setld -l /dirname' where
'dirname' is the name of the directory containing the 3.2G software set
That should be it, but I'd check the 3.2G installation guide 1st. I can
check it tomorrow when I get back to work. You also should take note of
what 'layered products' you have installed (i.e. DecNET OSI, Pathworks
Server, LSM, AdvFS). Sometimes, the install program will install the new
subsets... sometimes you have to deinstall them before the upgrade and then
install the new one after you're through.
> I'm assuming that I can preserve my Oracle partition or volume rather.
>It's the
>root and usr particulars that I'm worried about. Things like losing my
>licensing
>information, or any config files that I want to be left alone.
The things that are overwritten are usually OS specific (i.e. binaries in
/usr/bin). Custom binaries that have names other than traditional unix
binaries have always been there after my installs (that's why I try to put
custom binaries in /usr/local/bin).
I've never had a problem with preserving license information. To be safe,
redirect the output of 'lmf list full' to a file. This contains all of the
licensing information you'd need to re-add the licencses manually if
something gets messed up.
If you noticed, there are all those .proto and .new files laying around.
The installation program uses those with the simple source code management
programs to update the proper files while maintaining your customized
parts. Again, make sure you have a backup to work from.
> Any hints I can get to keep downtime low would be greatly appreciated.
Safe bet is do it on a weekend, and keep that DEC support number handy. I
have a similar conundrum now because I'm considering going from 3.2G to
4.0B.
Hope I was of help...
Karl
Karl Marble | HOME: mailto:kmarble_at_ultranet.com
Unix Administrator | WORK: mailto:marblek_at_city.ci.worcester.ma.us
Information Services |
http://www.ultranet.com/~kmarble
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Received on Fri Dec 27 1996 - 18:12:39 NZDT