HP e3000 MPE/iX System Software Maintenance Manual (Release C.75.00) (30216-90344)

Appendix G
HP Stage/iX Reference
HP Stage/iX Concepts
266
HP Stage/iX Concepts
Your operating system normally resides in what HP Stage/iX calls the Base. The Base is the set of files laid
down by the last UPDATE or INSTALL, and RESTORE from tape. The “base location” or “natural location” is
where a file officially resides (for example, NL.PUB.SYS).
HP Stage/iX creates, fills, and validates staging areas. A staging area is an HFS directory:
/SYS/hpstage/stage_name. It is located on disk and contains only the files of the OS that change as a result
of applying a set of patches. As needed, using the HP Stage/iX SET command, you activate your system
software to boot from either the Base or a designated staging area.
Creating and Activating a Staging Area
When you boot your system from a staging area, HP Stage/iX:
1. Creates a Base file archive.
2. Moves the affected Base files to the archive:
/SYS/hpstage/base_archive.
3. Moves the staging area files to their Base location.
4. Boots the system using the staging area files.
Much of the disk space used by the staging area and the archive is on LDEV 1. When the system is booting
from the Base files, the archive area is empty. When the system is booting from the staging area files, the
staging area is empty. The amount of disk space used depends on the set of patched files. Refer to Figur eG-1
for more information.
Figure G-1 Creating and Activating a Staging Area
Backing Out a Staging Area
To backout the changes from a staging area, use the HP Stage/iX SET command to designate the Base instead
of the staging area. When you use the SET command to backout a staging area, HP Stage/iX:
1. Moves the staging area files back to the staging area.
OS in Base
Introduce patches
Create staging
area.
Contains copies of
changed OS files
Phase II
Activate Staging
Move staging area files to Base
location. Reboot starts system
with stage_1 changes.
archive
Copy Base files
that are replaced
with changed
files to the
Phase I
Create Staging
patches
stage_1
Staging area
empty.
stage_1