Multibos Brown Bag :- A short tutorial on using the multibos command

Multibos Command 

A short tutorial on using the multibos command
multibos creates a second instance of “BOS” within a rootvgOnly 2 instances are supportedYou can switch between instancesOne instance can be upgraded

•Before doing some other install related commands you need to return to just one instance of “BOS” with the default logical volume (lv) names. (more later on this)
•Terminology–Active BOS:  The instance of the Base Operating System you are booted from.
–Standby BOS:  The instance of the Base Operating System you are NOT booted from.
–BLV: Boot Logical volume, hd5 or bos_hd5
•multibos 
–Preview the creation of the standby instance
–Creates a standby instance
–Allows access to the standby instance
–Creates and upgrades in one step
–Allows additional installs into,  maintenance of, and/or customization of a standby instance
•multibos creates copies of the / (root), /usr, /var, /opt and /home logical volumes and file systems
•multibos creates a unique boot logical volume associated with the new instance of “BOS”
•Copies of other logical volumes can be created•All other file systems and logical volumes are shared.
•To see if a standby BOS exists on a system, use the lsfs command, to check for bos_hdN lv names.

•multibos preview (-p flag )
–Allows preview of the setup operation (-s flag)
–Allows preview of the remove operation  (-R flag)
–Allows preview of the mount operation (-m flag)
–Allows preview of the unmount operation (-u flag)
–Allows preview of the customization operation (-c flag)

•multibos –X flag–Enables the auto-expansion of any file systems as needed.
–It is RECOMMENDED you use this flag on all multibos operations.

•multibos requirements
–Supported on AIX 5L Version 5.3 with the 5300-03 Recommended Maintenance package and all more current versions.
–The rootvg must have enough space for the copies of the logical volumes.
–The total number of copied logical volumes cannot exceed 128.  Volume group limitations apply.
–You must have root authority to do multibos operations.–
•How to create a standby BOS:–To preview the creation of a multibos instance:  multibos -Xsp–If successful, create the instance with:  multibos –Xs
•-X flag = Expand file systems as needed
•-p flag = Preview only
•-s flag = Setup operation
•How to remove a standby BOS:  # multibos -XR

•-X flag = Expand file systems as needed
•-R flag = Remove operation

•How to update a standby BOS:
–To do an update_all on an existing standby BOS:  multibos –Xac –l <location of update images>
–To create a standby BOS  and update it in one step:
  multibos –Xsa –l <location of update images>

AIX: How to failover/failback etherchannel

AIX: How to failover/failback etherchannel

To list the physical NICs of an etherchannel

#lsattr -El ent14|egrep 'adapter_names|backup_adapter'
adapter_names ent5 EtherChannel Adapters True
backup_adapter ent8 Adapter used when whole channel fails True

Check which NIC is active and Force a failover

#entstat -d ent14|grep -i active
Active channel: primary channel
#/usr/lib/methods/ethchan_config -f ent14
#entstat -d ent14|grep -i active
Active channel: backup adapter


and you will see message like this in errpt

59224136 0716102611 P H ent14 ETHERCHANNEL FAILOVER

Force a failback and check which NIC is active,

#/usr/lib/methods/ethchan_config -f ent14
#entstat -d ent14|grep -i active
Active channel: primary channel

and we can see the following message in errpt

Dusman Lam 

Hong Kong

Tel: 852-3666-5274 Cell: 852-9164-3595
dusman.lam@wellsfargo.com