Managing Systems and Workgroups: A Guide for HP-UX System Administrators

Configuring a System
Reconfiguring the Kernel (HP-UX 11i Version 2)
Chapter 3 359
mk_kernel. By contrast, each invocation of one of the kernel
configuration commands applies changes separately (although multiple
changes listed on the same configuration command line are applied
together).
Applying multiple changes together is particularly valuable when
modules are moved into or out of static state, because each command
that does this will run for quite a while. This occurs because such
changes require that the kernel executable be relinked. If you have
multiple such changes to make, it is best that you list them all on the
same kcmodule command line, or make the changes in a system file and
import it. Either of these techniques will ensure that the kernel
executable is only relinked once.
The other primary use for system files is copying configurations from one
system to another. It is not safe to copy a kernel configuration directory
from one machine to another, and HP does not support doing that.
However, it is perfectly safe to export a system file from a configuration
on one system, move that system file to a different system, and import it
there. This is an appropriate and effective way to ensure that two
machines are running compatible configurations. (Compatible means
they have the same set of kernel modules, but they may have different
versions of those modules due to patch installations.)
In some cases, running compatible configurations is not enough; you
need to be sure that two machines are running exactly the same
configuration. In that case, use the -V (Version match) option while
importing the system file on the target system. This option turns on
strict version checking, and the import will fail if the two machines have
different versions of kernel modules installed.
Managing Device Bindings
Device bindings are infrequently used configuration settings that can
only be configured using system files (see “Managing Configurations with
System Files” on page 356). Device bindings are notations about how
particular hardware devices should be used or controlled. There are
three basic types of device bindings supported by HP-UX: primary swap
device specifications, dump device specifications, and device driver
specifications. Most kernel configurations have no device bindings.