AIX Updates with

Multibos  

Chris Gibson
What is multibos?   

 Introduced with AIX 5.3 TL3.

 Create and maintain two separate,
bootable instances of the AIX OS
within the same root volume group
(rootvg).
 Standby BOS.
 Install, update and customize a
standby instance of the AIX OS.
 By default, the BOS file systems in
rootvg(/, /usr, /var, and /opt) and the
BLV are copied. All other file
systems and LVs are shared
between BOS instances.
 Similar alternate disk: no additional
disk, some LV shared between
instances.

AIX Updates with

Multibos.  

 Valuable in environments with tight

maintenance windows.
 Apply a new TL or SP. AIX migration
not supported….yet!
 Only need a small outage at a
convenient time to reboot the
system.
 Reduce the size of the after-hours
effort.
 Backing out from an AIX TL update
is also easier.

Getting Started  

 AIX 5.3 with TL3 or higher.

 Free space in rootvg for a copy of
each BOS logical volume (# lsvg
rootvg | grep FREE ).
 If all of the requirements can’t be
met, then a traditional update should
be performed.
 Document the system and perform a
mksysb before performing any
maintenance activity.

Creating a Standby BOS

Instance  

 Example: we’ll upgrade an AIX 5.3

system from TL4 to TL6.
 Remove any previous standby BOS
instance using “multibos –R.”
 Preview the operation first (using
“multibos –sXp”).
 Review the multibos log for any
errors (i.e., “alog –
of/etc/multibos/logs/op.alog”).
 Creating a Standby BOS
Instance, cont.  

 Create the standby BOS instance.

This may take several minutes and
should create a new LV and file
system for each BOS copy.
 Each new LV and file system is
prefixed by bos_.
 

# multibos –sX

# lsvg -l rootvg | grep bos

bos_hd5 boot 1 1 1 closed/syncd N/A

bos_hd4 jfs 4 4 1 closed/syncd /bos_inst

bos_hd2 jfs 48 48 1 closed/syncd /bos_inst/usr

bos_hd9var jfs 21 21 1 closed/syncd /bos_inst/var

bos_hd10opt jfs 4 4 1 closed/syncd /bos_inst/opt 

Creating a Standby BOS

Instance, cont.  
  Start a multibos shell and verify the
standby BOS and its current TL.
 

# multibos -S

Initializing multibos methods ... 

Mounting all standby BOS file systems ...

Mounting /bos_inst 

Multibos Root Shell 

Starting multibos root shell ... 

# oslevel -s

5300-04-01

# exit 

Unmounting all standby BOS file systems ... 

Log file is /etc/multibos/logs/op.alog

Return Status = SUCCESS  

 
 
 

Updating and Booting the

Standby BOS  
  Apply TL6 to the standby BOS. The
TL6 lppsource is mounted from our
NIM master.
 Perform a preview operation and
then execute the actual update to the
standby instance. Again, checking
the log file for any issues.
 

# mount
nimmast:/export/lpp_source/lpp_sourceaix
530603 /mnt
# multibos -Xacp -l /mnt
# multibos -Xac -l /mnt

Updating and Booting

the Standby BOS, cont.  

 We’ve now successfully applied TL6

to the standby BOS. Start a
multibos shell and verify that the
standby BOS has been updated.
 

# multibos –S
...

# oslevel -s

5300-06-03-0732

# exit

Ready to boot the standby

BOS  

 BOS may be upgraded during the

day, but the system may be restarted
after hours depending on the
available outage windows for this
system.
 Verify the bootlist and ensure that
the BLV is set to the standby BOS
(bos_hd5).
 Check the correct BLV. Compare the
output from bootlist with “Welcome to
AIX” banner.
 

# bootlist -m normal -ov

‘ibm,max-boot-devices’ = 0x5

NVRAM variable: (boot-device=/vdevice/v-

scsi@30000004/disk@8100000000000000:2 /vdevice/v-
scsi@30000004/disk@8100000000000000:4)
Path name: (/vdevice/v-scsi@30000004/disk@8100000000000000:4)

hdisk0 blv=bos_hd5

Path name: (/vdevice/v-scsi@30000004/disk@8100000000000000:2)

hdisk0 blv=hd5 

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome to AIX.

boot image timestamp: 02:24 06/05

The current time and date: 02:25:27 09/03/2007

number of processors: 1 size of memory: 4096MB

boot device: /vdevice/v-scsi@30000004/disk@8100000000000000:4

kernel size: 14154989; 64 bit kernel

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Booting the Standby BOS   

 Reboot the system now with the

“shutdown –Fr” command. After the
reboot, confirm the TL level via
“oslevel –r”. Verify which BLV the
system booted from with the
“bootinfo –v” command.
 Multibos LVs and file systems are
now open and mounted. The original
file systems are renamed with a
 bos_ prefix but their original LV
names are preserved.

Back out a TL or SP  

 If you need to back out of the update

and return to the previous TL, all
that’s required is to boot the previous
(“original”) BOS instance.
 Set the bootlist and verify that the
BLV is set to the previous BOS
instance (hd5).
 

# bootlist -m normal hdisk0 blv=hd5

hdisk0 blv=bos_hd5
# bootlist -m normal -o
hdisk0 blv=hd5
hdisk0 blv=bos_hd5