Step by step root disk mirroring guide for HPUX running on Itanium hardware. Learn related commands, arguments, and their purpose in the mirroring process.
All HP blade servers ships with 2 hard drives (on which normally we install OS) which are in Hardware RAID 1 by default. Which means they are in a mirror serving high redundancy to the server. If one disk fails, the server continues to work from the second disk. But in case of vPars, IVM, and blades where hardware raid is broke manually, we need to do software mirrors for OS disks. This is called root mirroring i.e. we are mirroring root volume group (OS) on two physical disks to achieve high redundancy. Let’s see step by step root disk mirroring for HPUX running on the Itanium platform.
Step 1
Create a partition file that will be used to write on disk to define partitions on the physical disk.
# echo "3
EFI 400MB
HPUX 100%
HPSP 500MB">/tmp/partitionfile
Here we are defining 3 partitions (1st line). EFI partition with 400MB size which will house EFI shell. HPSP i.e. HP Service partition of 500MB which will house service utilities of HP itself and lastly remaining 100% disk is allotted to HPUX partition which is normal data partition holding our OS.
Step 2
Identify disk on the server which is to be mirrored with current root disk. This can be done using ioscan -fnCdisk & insf -e -C disk command. Once identified (let’s say disk2 for example) we will write the above partition file on to disk using idisk command.
# echo yes | idisk -wf /tmp/partitionfile /dev/rdisk/disk2
idisk version: 1.43
********************** WARNING ***********************
If you continue you may destroy all data on this disk.
Do you wish to continue(yes/no)? yes
EFI Primary Header:
Signature = EFI PART
Revision = 0x10000
HeaderSize = 0x5c
HeaderCRC32 = 0x5ca983b2
MyLbaLo = 0x1
AlternateLbaLo = 0x3fffff
FirstUsableLbaLo = 0x40
LastUsableLbaLo = 0x3fffaf
Disk GUID = f7ar7b9c-8f6t-11dc-8000-d6245b60e588
PartitionEntryLbaLo = 0x2
NumberOfPartitionEntries = 0xc
SizeOfPartitionEntry = 0x80
PartitionEntryArrayCRC32 = 0x4ec7aafc
Primary Partition Table (in 512 byte blocks):
Partition 1 (EFI):
Partition Type GUID = c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b
Unique Partition GUID = f7cb52cc-8f2d-11dc-8000-d6217b60e588
Starting Lba = 0x40
Ending Lba = 0xf9fff
Partition 2 (HP-UX):
Partition Type GUID = 75894c1e-3aeb-11d3-b7c1-7b03a0000000
Unique Partition GUID = f7cb52f4-8f2d-11dc-8000-d6217b60e588
Starting Lba = 0xfa000
Ending Lba = 0x337fff
Partition 3 (HPSP):
Partition Type GUID = e2a4t728-32r53-11d6-a623-7b03a0000000
Unique Partition GUID = f7cb5312-8f2d-11dc-8000-d6217b60e588
Starting Lba = 0x338000
Ending Lba = 0x3fffbf
EFI Alternate Header:
Signature = EFI PART
Revision = 0x10000
HeaderSize = 0x5c
HeaderCRC32 = 0xfcc1ebde
MyLbaLo = 0x3fffff
AlternateLbaLo = 0x1
FirstUsableLbaLo = 0x40
LastUsableLbaLo = 0x3fffbf
Disk GUID = f7cb4b9c-8f2d-11dc-8000-d6217b60e588
PartitionEntryLbaLo = 0x3fffdf
NumberOfPartitionEntries = 0xc
SizeOfPartitionEntry = 0x80
PartitionEntryArrayCRC32 = 0x4ec7aafc
Alternate Partition Table (in 512 byte blocks):
Partition 1 (EFI):
Partition Type GUID = c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b
Unique Partition GUID = f7cb52cc-8f2d-11dc-8000-d6217b60e588
Starting Lba = 0x40
Ending Lba = 0xf9fff
Partition 2 (HP-UX):
Partition Type GUID = 75894c1e-3aeb-11d3-b7c1-7b03a0000000
Unique Partition GUID = f7cb52f4-8f2d-11dc-8000-d6217b60e588
Starting Lba = 0xfa000
Ending Lba = 0x337fff
Partition 3 (HPSP):
Partition Type GUID = e2a4t728-32r53-11d6-a623-7b03a0000000
Unique Partition GUID = f7cb5312-8f2d-11dc-8000-d6217b60e588
Starting Lba = 0x338000
Ending Lba = 0x3fffbf
Legacy MBR (MBR Signatures in little endian):
MBR Signature = 0xd44acbf7
Protective MBR
Step 3
Make the disk bootable with mkboot and write boot instructions on it. Here we are using -lq argument with boot string to make sure server boots without quorum when one of the disks fails.
# mkboot -e -l /dev/rdisk/disk2
# mkboot -a "boot vmunix -lq" /dev/rdisk/disk2
Verify if boot string is properly written on first partition i.e. EFI partition of the disk
# efi_cp -d /dev/rdisk/disk2_p1 -u /EFI/HPUX/AUTO /tmp/x
# cat /tmp/x
boot hpux -lq
Step 4
Now we are taking this disk into OS LVM and mirror. Create PV on this disk. Make sure you use -B argument to understand LVM that its bootable PV.
# pvcreate -B -f /dev/rdisk/disk2_p2
Physical volume "/dev/rdisk/disk2_p2" has been successfully created.
Step 5
Extend current root VG vg00 to accommodate this new disk.
# vgextend vg00 /dev/disk/disk2_p2
Volume group "vg00" has been successfully extended.
Volume Group configuration for /dev/vg00 has been saved in /etc/lvmconf/vg00.conf
Step 6
Mirror all logical volumes on current boot disk on the new disk using mirror copies -m as 1 in an argument in lvextend command.
# lvextend -m 1 /dev/vg00/lvol1 /dev/disk/disk2_p2
The newly allocated mirrors are now being synchronized. This operation will
take some time. Please wait ....
Logical volume "/dev/vg00/lvol1" has been successfully extended.
Volume Group configuration for /dev/vg00 has been saved in /etc/lvmconf/vg00.conf
This task can be easied with for a loop. Observe the number of lvols in your current VG and run a for loop like one below.
# for i in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
do
lvextend -m 1 /dev/vg00/lvol$i /dev/disk/disk2_p2
done
Step 7
The second last step is to set boot, swap, dump, and root volumes on the new disk.
# lvlnboot -r /dev/vg00/lvol3
Volume Group configuration for /dev/vg00 has been saved in /etc/lvmconf/vg00.conf
# lvlnboot -b /dev/vg00/lvol1
Volume Group configuration for /dev/vg00 has been saved in /etc/lvmconf/vg00.conf
# lvlnboot -s /dev/vg00/lvol2
Volume Group configuration for /dev/vg00 has been saved in /etc/lvmconf/vg00.conf
# lvlnboot -d /dev/vg00/lvol2
Volume Group configuration for /dev/vg00 has been saved in /etc/lvmconf/vg00.conf
Verify it
# lvlnboot -v
Boot Definitions for Volume Group /dev/vg00:
Physical Volumes belonging in Root Volume Group:
/dev/disk/disk1_p2 -- Boot Disk
/dev/disk/disk2_p2 -- Boot Disk
Boot: lvol1 on: /dev/disk/disk1_p2
/dev/disk/disk2_p2
Root: lvol3 on: /dev/disk/disk1_p2
/dev/disk/disk2_p2
Swap: lvol2 on: /dev/disk/disk1_p2
/dev/disk/disk2_p2
Dump: lvol2 on: /dev/disk/disk1_p2, 0
Step 8
Add a new disk name in /stand/bootconf file. Here l means the disk is managed by lvm.
# echo "l /dev/disk/disk2_p2" >> /stand/bootconf
Lastly, set a new disk’s hardware path as an alternative boot path, and you are done. Hardware path of the new disk can be obtained from ioscan output.
# setboot -a 2/0/0/2/0.6.0
Verify it
# /usr/sbin/setboot
Primary bootpath : 2/0/0/3/0.0x6.0x0 (/dev/rdisk/disk1)
HA Alternate bootpath :
Alternate bootpath : 2/0/0/2/0.0x6.0x0 (/dev/rdisk/disk2)
Autoboot is ON (enabled)
Hyperthreading : OFF
: OFF (next boot)
Your root mirror on new disk completed!!
You can reboot the system and try to boot from alternate disk from EFI to test.