ADSM-L

Moving to new hardware

2001-04-04 10:38:21
Subject: Moving to new hardware
From: Steven Chaba <Steven_Chaba AT RGE DOT COM>
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2001 10:38:45 -0400
Tomas:

I just completed a hardware and software upgrade over the weekend.

My old environment: RS/6000 H-50 quad processor, 1 Gb memory, running AIX 4.2.1,
and ADSM 3.1.1.5. ADSM was sharing this box with a number of applications and a
Sybase replication server.

My new environment: RS/6000 H-70 dual processor, 2 Gb memory, running AIX
4.3.3.6 and TSM 4.1.0. TSM is the sole occupant of this box, at least for the
time being. (We're considering making this our NIM server as well.)

Since I was moving from one server to another, I took this approach:

1) I perused the list archives at www.adsm.org. I found a number of good posts
on the subject, one of the most valuable being a post dated February 5, 2001 by
Geoffrey Gill, titled "Upgrading ADSM 3.1 to TSM 4.1".
 Between that and the Quick Start manual, I was able to create a checklist of
what needed to be where and when. (i.e. the dsmserv.dsk, dsmserv.opt and such
files). I also have found tremendous value in Richard Sims' posting on his Web
(located at http://people.bu.edu/rbs/ADSM.QuickFacts - for this he ought to be
canonized!).

2) I built the new machine and installed ADSM 3.1.1.5 on it, including
connecting it to our 3494 library and four 3590-B drives using the second port
on each of the 3590s, which we run one drive to one SCSI bus.

3) I tested the new setup as follows: Three weekends ago, I shut down my
production ADSM server and simply copied all the database and log volumes into
an identical file structure on the new machine, using an AIX rcp command. Over a
local 100 Mb Ethernet network, moving a 16 Gb database and a 2 Gb recovery log
took about two hours total.

4) ADSM came cleanly on the new box, except for problems talking to the drives
themselves, which were correct by deleting the drive and library, redefining the
library to use different category numbers, then redefining the drives. There was
also an initial issue talking to the library over the RS-232 control link, but
that turned out to be a bad serial cable.

5) After satisfying myself that ADSM was working on the new box, I then upgraded
that box. I went from ADSM 3.1.1.5 to TSM 4.1.0.0 in one fell swoop, apparently
without any problem. I checked a handful of tapes out of my production server
and into the test server, ran DB backups, had a few of my more savvy clients run
backups (mostly of test boxes) to the test setup, etc.

6) This past Sunday, I quiesced my old production ADSM server one last time,
shut it down, and recopied the database and log files across to the new server.
I then ran the dsmserv upgradedb command, which only took a minute or so extra
to come up. Everything came up and ran on TSM without missing a beat, and has
been humming along happily since then.

A couple more notes: I didn't do a database backup before I moved the database
and log files for the last time, but after the fact I wished I had. It occurred
to me during the process that given two AIX machines with identical filesystems,
one slip of the finger and I could have copied in the wrong direction and blown
away my good database. Also, before shutting down the test version for the last
time, remember to check out all the tapes checked into that library defintion,
even database backups. *SM will allow this, and when the tapes are sitting in
the library in the library scratch category, you can simply check them back in
as *SM scratch to the other library.

Hope this helps.

Regards, Steven
Steven J. Chaba, Lead Analyst
Rochester Gas & Electric Corporation
Rochester, NY USA
716.771.2137 voice

>Date:    Tue, 3 Apr 2001 12:43:09 -0400
>From:    Tomas Hallin <thwork AT MINDSPRING DOT COM>
>Subject: Moving to new hardware
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>

>People,
>
>we have now outgrown our NT ADSM server and need to move to new
>hardware.  Could anyone with experience in doing this recommend the
>best way to do so?  Is EXPORT SERVER the way to go?
>
>thanks,
>
>/Tomas
>
>Tomas Hallin
>Affinity Technology Group
>Columbia, SC
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