Hello,

I am new to AIX, as I was primarily working on HP-UX servers.

We have some production servers and a couple of lab servers. We have upgraded over 40 servers from 5.2 to 5.3 running a particular application(1) using the golden 5.3 upgraded servers copy of makesysb. We have only two servers left to migrate from 5.2 to 5.3. These servers are running a different application(2) which has a Primary and Replica status.

The OS configurations are the same on the two servers application(2), but different than the 40 application(1) servers. We were wanting to peform a makesysb on the Primary AIX 5.2 server/application(2) and send it to a DAT tape. We would then take the DAT tape makesysb and install it on one of our LAB servers. We would then upgrade the lab server to 5.3 and create a makesysb. It sounds so simple!

The problem is we received a system email stating some of the following:

* Installing from a tape backup whose boot image is too large
* Backing up DMAPI filesystems
* 0512-064


Installing from a tape backup whose boot image is too large


This makes it sound like we are not going to be able to restore our lab server with the Primary AIX 5.2 makesysb.

How do we get a good makesysb from an AIX 5.2 server?
How do we install it on our LAB server?

Thank you!

That reminds me of a bug I encountered some years ago when certain 5.2 modification levels "complained" about bootimage size. I am not sure that this is exactly the problem you describe but if you happen to use no current 5.2 ML you could update to the current 5.2 ML or try to install these APARs: IBM - IY56839: SYSTEM BOOT HANGS WHEN BOOT IMAGE EXCEEDS 12M 04/06/10 PTF PECHANGE
and/or probably IBM - IY64689: BOOT FAILS WITH LARGE BOOT IMAGE.

If that APAR does not apply or if updating the os is not an option you could uninstall some of the device drivers that you don't really use on the particular server. Compare the output of lsdev -C to lslpp -l |grep devices. There might be drivers for Graphics adapters, Token Ring, ATM adapters and CryptoCard for instance. Delete those unnecessary drivers with installp -u to shrink the bootimage size and run mksysb again.

Boot from CD, aix install cd at the same level as the mksysb, and then restore the mksysb.

I may have to wait for my counterpart to get back from vacation.

I am going to try and boot off the fakemaksysb image I created off the primary server. Hopefully we will receive the DAT maksysb image. I will try to install the DAT with the bootable CD.

Here was some more of the verbeage in the email we received after creating the DAT maksysb.

1). Boot off of media that has a smaller boot image and is at the same level
as the backup. (For example, the AIX product media, or network boot image.)
Then, select "3 Access Advanced Maintenance Functions", select "4 Install
from a System Backup", select tape drive and install. If you do not have AIX
product media at the same level, see "CREATING BOOTABLE CD MEDIA" below.

Note: If install media is not at equal to or higher maintenance level than
the level of the backup image being installed, unpredictable results might occur.

2). Remove filesets from the system that would result in a smaller boot image
and then create a new backup.

This option might not be valid if the system requires all the filesets that it
currently has on it to run. This includes filesets whose names begin with
devices, for example: devices.pci.xxxxxx.rte). Do not remove any filesets
for devices that you might have on other systems in your environment because
the resulting backup may not be able to boot or install onto those systems.

CREATING BOOTABLE CD MEDIA:

Preferably on the same system that the non-bootable backup came from, execute
the following commands:

# cd /var/adm/ras
# ls ./bosinst.data ./image.data | backup -ivqf/tmp/fakemksysb
# mkcd -m /tmp/fakemksysb -d /dev/cdx # Where cdx is an attached cdwriter
OR
# mkcd -m /tmp/fakemksysb -S # Will create a CD image which can be
# transferred to a system with a cdwriter

Note: The final mkcd command in the previous example makes an image that could
be transferred to another system (AIX or non-AIX) for burning.
Note: The bosinst.data file must be set for a prompted install (PROMPT = yes).



Thanks again for your assistance!!