IBM DS3500 - AIX SAN Boot with the IBM System Storage DS3500; Creating a Boot Disk with Alt_Disk_Install

Chapter 21. AIX 6.1 configuration guide 655
Draft Document for Review March 28, 2011 12:24 pm AIX.fm
# smitty mpio  Path Management  Change/Show Path Characteristics  Change/Show
Characteristics for Device’s Path.
Type a valid MPIO device name or select it from the list and afterwards, type or select a valid
MPIO path. A similar windows will be shown as in Example 21-15.
Example 21-15 Change the priority for a specific path
AIX MPIO Active/Passive Disk PCM Change Path Characteristics
Type or select values in entry fields.
Press Enter AFTER making all desired changes.
[Entry Fields]
Device Name hdisk2
Path Id 0
Parent Name fscsi1
Connection 20490080e51b0c90,0
State Enabled
Priority [1]
F1=Help F2=Refresh F3=Cancel F4=List
F5=Reset F6=Command F7=Edit F8=Image
F9=Shell F10=Exit Enter=Do
21.5 AIX SAN Boot with the IBM System Storage DS3500
This section contains a step-by-step illustration of SAN boot implementation using AIX 6.1 on
a POWER System environment. We will discuss the procedure about all the possible
implementations mentioned in 21.1.2, “SAN Boot implementation possibilities” on page 645.
When installing the operating system, you can only have one path to the storage device
(LUN). Since the servers are generally equipped with two HBAs, and because most DS3500
storage subsystems have two RAID controllers, you must isolate (disconnect) the second
HBA or do an appropriate zoning.
21.5.1 Creating a boot disk with alt_disk_install
The following procedure is based on the alt_disk_install command, cloning the current
operating system to the DS3500 storage subsystem SAN disk. With this procedure, it is
possible to copy the operating system from an internal hard disk to a logical drive in the
storage or copy the operating system from another server to the logical drive and then remap
it to the new server.
Proceed as follows:
1. Create a logical drive on the DS3500 storage subsystem having the same or greater
capacity than the source disk.
Note: At the time of writing this redbook, fiber channel is the only supported environment
regarding POWER Systems and the IBM Systems Storage DS3500. Because of that we
will only include the SAN boot configuration.