Successful System Cloning using Ignite-UX

Upgraded systems and older versions of Ignite-UX

The version of Ignite-UX required to recover a system can easily get disassociated from the version

of Ignite-UX installed on a system. The following example illustrates this concept.

Example

You purchased an rp8400 server, and then installed Ignite-UX soon after this hardware was

available. You have created monthly make_tape_recovery(1M) tapes for the system because they

are part of your recovery strategy. The version of Ignite-UX that was installed has not changed and

recovery operations were successful when tested prior to the system being used for its intended

purpose.

A year ago, it and its disaster recovery system were upgraded to 750 MHz PA8700 CPUs.

The repercussion resulting from this upgrade is that the installation kernel on the recovery tape

panics when it is first booted because it does not support the newer PA8700 CPUs. This results in

extended downtime because a recovery was initiated in a crucial situation.

Try one of the following procedures when faced with this situation:

1. Run make_boot_tape on a system with a high enough revision of Ignite-UX to support the

faster CPUs. (Since make_boot_tape creates bootable tapes for PA-RISC systems only,

Itanium-based systems cannot use this method.)

2. Boot from the tape created in Step 1.

3. When queried at the first menu, replace the tape with the original recovery tape.

4. Continue to attempt to recover the system using the original recovery tape. If there are large

differences in the versions of Ignite-UX, the recovery may not work because of changes to the

configuration files.

1. Boot from media.

2. Follow the dual-media recovery instructions in the “Tape Recovery with No Tape Boot

Support” section of the "System Recovery" Chapter of the Ignite-UX Administrators Guide.

Note:

HP does not support either of these actions, as they involve using mismatched versions of Ignite-UX. It is relatively

likely they will fail – the greater the version difference, the higher the likelihood of failure. This information is

prevented here as something you can try in a last-ditch effort to recover a system.

Does the recovery archive or golden image support the system?

This is a similar question to the previous question (Does the recovery archive, golden image, or SD

core operating system depot I am using support my hardware?) although from a different

perspective.

When cloning a system, installing a golden image, or installing from a core operating system depot

you must determine whether your Ignite-UX server contains the required drivers, software, and/or

patches to support your clients. Additionally, the hardware on which a golden image or recovery

archive is created can have an impact on the ability to clone as well.