Methods of upgrading a Virtual I/O Server
Learn about the methods of upgrading or migrating a Virtual I/O Server (VIOS).
- The manual upgrade method
- The new viosupgrade tool method
Manual upgrade
In the manual upgrade method, you must first manually back up the VIOS metadata by using the viosbr -backup
command, install the VIOS through NIM or Flash Storage,
and then restore the VIOS metadata by using the
viosbr -restore
command. For more information about the manual upgrade methods when
the VIOS belongs to an SSP cluster, see Upgrading the Virtual I/O Server - SSP cluster. For more information about the manual
upgrade methods when the VIOS does not belong to an SSP
cluster, see Upgrading the Virtual I/O Server - non-SSP cluster
The viosupgrade tool
- NIM - viosupgrade for NIM users. For more information, see viosupgrade command
- VIOS - viosupgrade for non NIM users. For more information, see viosupgrade command
- Installations through the viosupgrade command are of the type
New and Complete installation. Any customized configurations that might exist
on the currently running system before the installation starts (including the timezone), are not
included in the new installation image. You must save and backup any customized configurations
before running the viosupgrade command and restore them after the
installation completes. The viosbr backup and restore commands handle only the
configurations related to the virtual I/O. The viosupgrade command provides
an option to save the required configuration files from the currently installed image to the new
VIOS image.
For example, to copy any customized configuration files such as /etc/netsvc.conf, /etc/ntp.conf, and so on, to the new image, use the viosupgrade command. For more information, see the viosupgrade command.
- Alternate disks that are used with the -a flag and the
-r flag as part of the viosupgrade command must be
completely free. That is, you must be able to list them by using the
lspv -free
command on the VIOS. - When you are using the viosupgrade command, do not make any changes to the virtual device mappings on the VIOS. If you create or change any mappings during the viosupgrade process, the new mappings are lost.