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Swapping Solaris system discs

  • 20-09-2005 11:19am
    #1
    Spocker
    Moderators Posts: 6,900 ✭✭✭


    I'm just wondering can this be done/what would the potential pitfalls be...

    I have two Solaris based Sun servers, an Enterprise420D and a SunFire280R, both running Solaris 8. Both have StorEDGE A1000 arrays attached and the 420D has a StorEDGE L9 Tape drive attached as well. The 420D was our primary server for a long time and we'd like to switch to using the 280R (a newer machine).

    Heres my idea - I want to take the system drives and array from the older machine (the 420D) and swap them with the drives in the newer machine (the 280R), as opposed to a backup/restore/migrate.

    Other than the network interface name (named differently on each machine) and possibly the storage array interface/graphics can anyone offer any suggestions as to potential problems I may face...? Or is this even the most practical solution..?

    I'm not concerned with what happens to the old hardware/new discs or the possibility of downtime and any suggestions/ideas for an alternative, easy migration are, of course, most welcome.

    S.


Comments

  • #2
    celt2005
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 327 ✭✭celt2005


    If no backup, ya may lose data as SCSI controllers are probably different revision.

    even if ya don,t want to backup/restore , you should plan for it.


  • #3
    Spocker
    Moderators Posts: 6,900 ✭✭✭Spocker


    Sorry, should have been more specific. Backups are not an issue (we preform daily,weekly/monthly/quarterly), I just don't want to have to restore from backups if at all possible.

    I hadn't though of the SCSI card, AFAIK they are the same, but will check the specs.


  • #4
    Jackz
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,506 ✭✭✭Jackz


    Dr.

    Do you mean putting the system disks form the old server into the new server and attaching the array to it? And then just turn it on so you can use new box?


  • #5
    Spocker
    Moderators Posts: 6,900 ✭✭✭Spocker


    Hi Jackz,

    If I can get away with it, thats the general idea. Whatta think?


  • #6
    hmboards
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 345 ✭✭hmboards


    Dr. Spock wrote:

    Heres my idea - I want to take the system drives and array from the older machine (the 420D) and swap them with the drives in the newer machine (the 280R), as opposed to a backup/restore/migrate.

    Other than the network interface name (named differently on each machine) and possibly the storage array interface/graphics can anyone offer any suggestions as to potential problems I may face...? Or is this even the most practical solution..?

    S.

    This doesn't work very well. The paths to all the I/O cards will be different etc. There are workarounds (rebuilding the device tree etc.) but it's not really worth the effort.

    I would suggest you create a flash archive (man flarcreate) of your 420R and use the image to rebuild the 280. If you have the room, create the flar as a file on the 420 and export it under NFS. If you don't have room, create the archive to tape. When installing Solaris on the 280, boot off disk 1 of 2 (NOT the install disk), using the options `boot cdrom - w`. Note there is a space each side of that "-". This will give you the option to install from a flash archive. The difference here compared to restoring a ufsdump is that the device paths will be created from scratch, as will the vfstab.


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  • #7
    Spocker
    Moderators Posts: 6,900 ✭✭✭Spocker


    Update: went for a dry run this morning by taking the discs from the SunFire with the intention of putting them into the Enterprise and seeing what happened - but a physical problem got the better of me. The connectors on the back of the disc caddys are different (the Fire on is smaller) so that puts paid to that idea.

    Will give your idea of the flash archives a shot hmboards, do you know if this will work with RAW devices...?


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