On hp im trying to figure out if we have alt_boot setup, basically if the root disk(physical disk) goes bad, I can bring up an alt physical disk with the same filesystems as the root disk that went bad, i dont think this is the same as mirroring, as the alt_disk would be inactive unless the root disk failed... How can I determine if alt_boot is present on a given HPux 11i system

Because you're not defining what "alt_boot" means, this question is too vague for a sensible answer. Would a disk sitting in someone's desk drawer count?

The command "setboot" will display the primary and alternate bootpath. The command "ioscan -fnCdisk" will show attached disks. These commands may be a place to start.

I thought I explainend it here

"basically if the root disk(physical disk) goes bad, I can bring up an alternate physical disk with the same filesystems as the root disk that went bad" on solaris the process is to

go to OK prompt, then type boot altboot.

this reads vstab.broot which contains the physical device information used to boot to the secondary disk

am I still not making sense?

Yes, you're still not making sense. First, a disk in someone's desk drawer does match that definition since it could be preconfigured and made ready to install in the system. Second, HP PA-Risc systems do not have an ok prompt. Are we actually talking Suns here?

HP's do have a pdc prompt and you can type "boot altpath" or "boot alt" if you're fast enough or you turn off autoboot. But "boot alt" is usually used to boot from cd-rom, which I suppose might also meet your definition of alt_boot.

Anyway try the commands I gave earlier and see where that leaves you...provided that you really are on an HP system.

pretty sure im on a HP system, but im a newbie..... I dont understand HP disks or file systems at all

setboot
Primary bootpath : 8/12.5.0
Alternate bootpath : 8/12.8.0 #so this is the alt_boot disk below from the ioscan command?(i deleted the rest of the ioscan output

Autoboot is ON (enabled)
Autosearch is ON (enabled)

<root@>uname -a
HP-UX B.11.00 A 9000/803 2014853483 two-user license

ioscan -fnCdisk
Class I H/W Path Driver S/W State H/W Type Description
=====================================================================


disk 1 8/12.8.0 sdisk CLAIMED DEVICE SEAGATE ST34572WC
/dev/dsk/c0t8d0 /dev/rdsk/c0t8d0


Thanks for the help

Now you want to know what, if anything, /dev/dsk/c0t8d0 does for a living. If you are using lvm, do
pvdisplay /dev/dsk/c0t8d0
and see which volume group it belongs to. And then if that is anything that count as a alt_boot.

Of course, the real test would be to boot from it. It may be intended as a alt_boot, but not set up properly.

thanks for the help, here is the output, Im assumming its being used for something else, since it is active, would I be correct?

pvdisplay /dev/dsk/c0t8d0
--- Physical volumes ---
PV Name /dev/dsk/c0t8d0
VG Name /dev/vg00
PV Status available
Allocatable yes
VGDA 2
Cur LV 9
PE Size (Mbytes) 4
Total PE 1023
Free PE 54
Allocated PE 969
Stale PE 0
IO Timeout (Seconds) default
Autoswitch On