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HowtoBackupandUpgradeaVirtualI/O
Server
September2013|byJaquiLynch
Editorsnote:ThisisthefirstofatwopartseriesonVirtualI/OServer(VIOS)careandfeeding.
VIOSisacriticalcomponentofanyPOWERvirtualizedenvironment.Bestpracticesdictateitbekept
currentandbackedup.Thisarticlefocusesonbackupsandupgrades,whileparttwowillprovidetipsand
tricksaswellasusingfilebackedoptical(FBO).

BackinguptheVIOS
Toensurestructuresforthevolumegroups(VGs)andvirtualdefinitionsarebackedup,runa
savevgstructandviosbrpriortobackingupaVIOS.Usingsavevgstructwritesabackupofthestructure
ofthenamedVGtothe/home/ios/vgbackupsdirectory.Thisisautomaticallycalledforallactivenon
rootvgVGsorstoragepoolsonaVIOSwhenbackupiosisrun,however,runoneanywaytobesafe.A
samplebackupscriptmightcontain:
su - padmin -c "ioscli savevgstruct datavg"
su - padmin -c "ioscli savevgstruct rootclients_vg"
su - padmin -c "ioscli viosbr backup file /tmp/viosabr.backup
Mount the NFS repository for the backups (/nfsmnt)
su padmin c ioscli backupios file /nfsmnt/vio2-jun2813.mksysb -mksysb

TheviosbrcommandcanalsobeusedtovieworrestorethestructuresasexplainedfurtherbytheIBM
informationcenter.
ThepreviousscriptbacksuptheVIOStoabootablemksysbfile.TousethebackupwithNIM,replace
thebackupiosabovewith:
mkdir /nfsmnt/nimbkups
backupios -file /nfsmnt/nimbkups

Thiscreatesanim_resources.tarfilethatcanbeusedforrestoresasdescribedhere.

IntegratingVIOSInstallsWithNIM
AVIOScanbeinstalledusingNIM,however,specificstepsneedtobetakenwhensettinguptheVIOS
NIMenvironment:
1.AddtheVIOSpartitionasaNIMclient.
2.CopytheVIOSmksysbimagefromtheCDtoyourNIMmaster.
3.VIOS2.2medianowcontainthreeimagesthethirdisonDVD2socopyallthreeimages
individuallytoadirectoryandthenusecattocombinethem:
cat /export/mksysb/vios2.2/mksysb_image
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/export/mksysb/vios2.2/mksysb_image2
/export/mksysb/vios2.2/mksysb_image3
>/export/mksysb/nim_vios2.2mksysb

4.Now,definethemksysbresourcetoNIMmaster.
5.DefinetheSPOTonNIMmasterwiththesourcebeingthecombinedmksysbfile.(TheSPOT
cannotbecreatedfromanlpp_source.)
6.Copythebosinst.datafromtheDVDandcreateaviosbosinstresource.
Youcannowusebos_insttoperformamksysbinstalloncethepartitionprofileisdefined,asexplained
here.

UpdatingVIOS
AgoodstrategyforupdatesstartswithupdatingtheHardwareManagementConsole(HMC),thenthe
firmware,theVIOSandtheLPARs.Butfirst,checktoensurethevariouscombinationsalongthewayare
compatibleandsupported.
1.DownloadtheupdatesandcrosscheckcompatibilitybyusingFLRT.
2.ReadtheVIOSupgradeREADMEfile.Thisiscriticalandwillpreventmanyproblemsasit
includesthestepsrequiredpriortoinstallation.
3.Checkthattherearenoproblemscurrentlywithstalephysicalpartitions(PPs),missingdisks,etc.
4.EnsureallpathsareredundantsowhentheVIOSisrebootedtheLPARsstayup.
5.UseHMCScannerormksysplantodocumenttheenvironment:
6.

lsvgrootvgchecksforstalePPsandphysicalvolumes.
lsvgpvrootvglooksformissingdisks.
lspathchecksformissingpaths.
netstatcdlistatsdeterminesiflinkstatusisuponallusedinterfaces.
errptchecksforerrors.

7.Runthesavescript(A)andbeforebackinguptheVIOS.
8.MounttheNFSmountpointorusetheDVDandassigntotheVIOS:
9.Useupdateioscommittocommitanyuncommittedupdates.
Thefollowinginstallsallthefixesinthedirectorylistedbydevupdateiosdev/nfsmount/vios2221install
accept.Whenusingsystemsupportprograms,theupgrademayhangattheendwith:
installp: * * * A T T E N T I O N ! ! !
Software changes processed .. effective.

UsectrlCtoexitthis.Aftertheupgradeiscomplete:
ioslevel
oem_setup_env
oslevel -s
instfix -i | grep ML
All filesets for 6100-07_AIX_ML were found.
All filesets for 6.1.0.0_AIX_ML were found.
Not all filesets for 6100-08_AIX_ML were found.

Ifsomefilesetsarentfound,thensomedidntgoonandgetupdated.Typically,thiswillbesomeofthe
languagesetsorthealtdiskinstallimages.Thesecanbefoundwith:
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# oslevel -sq
Known Service Packs
------------------6100-08-02-1316
6100-08-01-1245
# oslevel -s -l 6100-08-02-1316
Fileset

Actual Level

Service Pack Level

----------------------------------------------------------------------------bos.alt_disk_install.boot_images

6.1.8.0

6.1.8.15

bos.loc.utf.ES_ES

6.1.7.15

6.1.8.15

Thesecaneitherbeupdatedorremovedtogeteverythingconsistent.Toupdatethem,copythe
necessaryupdatesofthefilesetsintotheirowndirectoryanduseupdateiospointingtothatdirectoryor
useremoveflagtoremovethefilesetsiftheyarentcritical.Nowsetthebootlistafterrunningbosboot:
bosboot -a -d hdisk0
bosboot -a -d hdisk1
bootlist m normal hdisk0 hdisk1

RebootandBackup
Now,itstimetoreboot.OncebothVIOserversarecompleteandifalliswellrunanotherbackup.To
saveVIOinformation,seeCodeSample1andlookforparttwoformoretipsandtricks,andhowtouse
FBO.

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