Setting and Booting a Virtual Partition Using Primary and Alternate Boot Paths

You can set the primary and alternate boot paths of a virtual partition by using the HP-UX setboot command or the vPars command vparmodify and the BOOT and ALTBOOT attributes.

For more information on how setboot works on a vPars server, see “System-wide Stable Storage and Setboot”. For more information on the I/O attributes, see vparresources(5) manpage.

Setting the Primary or Alternate Boot Paths

In the examples below, suppose you want the virtual partition winona2 to have its primary boot disk at 0/8/0/0.5.0 and its alternate boot path at 0/8/0/0.2.0.

Using setboot

Because setboot affects only the virtual partition from which you execute the command, execute these commands from winona2.

To set the primary boot path:
- winona2# setboot -p 0/8/0/0.5.0
To set the alternate boot path:
- winona2# setboot -a 0/8/0/0.2.0

Using vparcreate

Within the vparcreate command, you can specify the primary or alternate boot paths with the BOOT and ALTBOOT attributes:

To set the primary boot path:
- winona1# vparcreate -p winona2 -a io:0.8.0.0.5.0:BOOT
To set the alternate boot path:
- winona1# vparcreate -p winona2 -a io:0.8.0.0.2.0:ALTBOOT
Or to set both the primary and alternate boot paths on the same command line:
- winona1# vparcreate -p winona2 -a io:0.8.0.0.5.0:BOOT -a io:0.8.0.0.2.0:ALTBOOT

Using vparmodify

If the virtual partitions are created already, you can specify the primary or alternate boot paths with the BOOT and ALTBOOT attributes within the vparmodify command:

To set the primary boot path:
- winona1# vparmodify -p winona2 -a io:0.8.0.0.5.0:BOOT
To set the alternate boot path:
- winona1# vparmodify -p winona2 -a io:0.8.0.0.2.0:ALTBOOT
Or to set the primary and alternate boots paths on the same command line:
- winona1# vparmodify -p winona2 -a io:0.8.0.0.5.0:BOOT -a io:0.8.0.0.2.0:ALTBOOT

Booting Using the Primary or Alternate Boot Paths

To boot winona2 using the primary path:

winona1# vparboot -p winona2 -B pri

However, because the primary boot path is the default, you can omit the -Bportion:

winona1# vparboot -p winona2

To boot winona2 using the alternate path:

winona2# vparboot -p winona2 -B alt




	NOTE: Setting a path using vparmodify requires the target virtual partition to be down; setboot does not. However, setboot can change only the path(s) of the virtual partition from which the setboot command is run (in other words, the local virtual partition). You cannot specify `pri` or `alt` at the monitor prompt. However, because the primary boot path is the default, you can boot `winona2` using the primary path using the following command: MON> vparload -p winona2 If you want to boot `winona2` using the alternate boot path, you can specify the hardware address for the alternate boot path. For example, to boot the virtual partition `winona2` using the disk at `0/8/0/0.2.0`: MON> vparload -p winona2 -B 0.8.0.0.2.0

Using Primary and Alternate Paths with nPartitions

The vPars database and the nPartition complex profile are entirely separate. Therefore, a change in the vPars database does not change any complex profile data.

A change in the primary or alternate paths in the vPars database does not change the primary or alternate paths in the complex profile. To change the primary or alternate paths for both a virtual partition and its nPartition, you must change the paths for each separately.

Example

Original Status

Suppose a vparstatus output of winona1 showed the alternate boot path to be 0/0/6/0/0.6.0 (irrelevant output omitted):

winona2# vparstatus -p	 winona1 -v
[Virtual Partition Details]
Name:	       winona1
State:	      Down
Attributes: Dynamic,Autoboot
.
.
.
[IO Details]
   0.0.6
   0.0.6.0.0.5
   0.0.0
   0.0.4
   0.0.2
   0.0.6.0.0.5.0  BOOT
   0.0.6.0.0.6.0  ALTBOOT

and its nPartition showed the nPartition's alternate path to be 2/0/14/0/0.6.0:

winona2# parstatus -p0 	-V
[Partition]
Partition Number       : 0
Partition Name	         : npar0
Status		                 : active
IP address	             : 0.0.0.0
Primary	Boot Path       : 0/0/6/0/0.5.0
Alternate Boot Path    : 2/0/14/0/0.6.0
HA Alternate Boot Path : 0/0/6/0/0.5.0
.
.
.

Changing the Virtual Partition's Path (vPars Partition Database)

To change winona1's alternate boot path to the boot disk at 0/0/6/0/0.4.0, run the command:

winona2# vparmodify -p winona1 -a io:0.0.6.0.0.4.0:ALTBOOT

vparstatus now shows:

winona2# vparstatus -p	 winona1 -v
[Virtual Partition Details]
Name:	      winona1
State:	      Down
Attributes:   Dynamic,Autoboot
Kernel Path:  /stand/vmunix
.
.
.
[IO Details]
   0.0.6
   0.0.6.0.0.5
   0.0.0
   0.0.4
   0.0.2
   0.0.6.0.0.4.0  ALTBOOT
   0.0.6.0.0.5.0  BOOT
   0.0.6.0.0.6.0

but note that the nPartition's alternate path has not changed:

# parstatus -p0	 -V
[Partition]
Partition Number       : 0
Partition Name	         : npar0
Status		                 : active    
IP address	             : 0.0.0.0
Primary	Boot Path       : 0/0/6/0/0.5.0
Alternate Boot Path    : 2/0/14/0/0.6.0
HA Alternate Boot Path : 0/0/6/0/0.5.0

Changing the nPartition's Path (Complex Profile Data)

To change the nPartition's alternate path to 0/0/6/0/0.4.0, run the command:

winona2# parmodify -p0 -t 0/0/6/0/0.4.0
Command succeeded.

The nPartition's alternate path has now changed:

winona2# parstatus -p0 	-V
[Partition]
Partition Number       : 0
Partition Name	         : npar0
Status		                 : active
IP address	             : 0.0.0.0
Primary	Boot Path       : 0/0/6/0/0.5.0
Alternate Boot Path    : 0/0/6/0/0.4.0
HA Alternate Boot Path : 0/0/6/0/0.5.0