Administration Guide
Be sure you have prepared the control workstation as described in Preparing the control workstation before you define system partitions.
To partition your SP system, begin by choosing a partitioning configuration
suitable for the size of your system. The procedure involves the
following steps which are explained in the remainder of this section:
- Check if the system partition configuration you want is supplied.
- If the system partition configuration you want is not supplied, use the
System Partitioning Aid to generate and save your system partition
configuration.
- Archive the System Data Repository.
- Select a system partition configuration and layout to apply.
- Customize (name and specify attributes of) the system partitions.
Notes:
- Be prepared with values that have been carefully planned for the SP
security authentication configuration.
- If you are repartitioning and your system has an SP Switch, you need to
run Eunpartition in each of the partitions that are going to
change. This prepares the switch in those partitions for
repartitioning. |See "SP Switch recovery".
- Configure SP partition-sensitive services for using DCE.
- |Prepare the switch for partitioning.
- Shut down all nodes in changing system partitions.
- Run the setup_server command on the control workstation.
- Apply the configuration.
- Complete any DCE configuration.
- Reboot all the nodes in changed system partitions.
- |Start the switch admin daemon.
The steps just listed make up the task referred to as partitioning
the SP system. If you want to change or add system partitions, that is
to repartition the SP system after it has already been partitioned,
the steps are the same. To modify an existing system partition or
create a new partition for a new production environment, for example, you
would follow those same steps. However, there are extra considerations
when there is an SP Switch in the system.
If you are repartitioning your system and it has an SP Switch, you must run
Eunpartition at the appropriate time. Failure to do that will
produce unpredictable Estart command results in the new system
partitions. The Estart command results can range from only the
old system partition portion of the new system partition being accessible on
the switch, to a complete Estart time out failure. Various
recovery scenarios are available. Successful recovery can be
accomplished by taking the following steps, running the commands in each of
the system partitions:
- |If you are using the node recovery feature of the SP Switch switch
|admin daemon swtadmd, stop the switch admin daemon before you run
|the Eunpartition command. To stop the switch admin daemon, run
|the command:
|stopsrc -s swtadmd
- Run the Eclock command to reset the switch.
- Reboot all the nodes or run the css_restart_node command on all
nodes.
- Run the SDRChangeAttrValues switch_responds isolated=0
command.
- |If you are using the node recovery feature of the switch admin
|daemon, restart the daemon after the global activity is complete. To
|start the switch admin daemon, run the command:
|startsrc -s swtadmd
|If you were not using the node recovery feature of the switch admin
|daemon, to reestablish switch recovery and primary node takeover run the
|Estart command.
This recovery scenario is disruptive to all system partitions, even those
not otherwise affected by the repartition.
If you know that the system partition configuration you want already
exists, start with Step 3: Archive the system data repository. Otherwise, start with Step 1: Check if the system partition configuration you want is supplied.
Whether partitioning or repartitioning the system, you have the option of
using SMIT menus or commands. SMIT menus can be accessed with the
smit command or from the SP Perspectives Launch Pad. (For more
information and examples of the commands used in this chapter, see the book
PSSP: Command and Technical Reference.)
| Note |
|---|
|
Some of the commands used in system partitioning
(spdisplay_config, splstdata -p, spapply_config -v,
for example) produce lengthy output. It is helpful to log the output of
such commands. For example, to execute the spapply_config
command while simultaneously logging a copy of the output to the file
/tmp/syspar.log, run the command:
spapply_config -v config.4_4_8/layout.3 2>&1 | tee /tmp/syspar.log
|
- TYPE
- smit
- The System Management menu appears.
- SELECT
- RS/6000 SP System Management
- The RS/6000 SP System Management menu appears.
- SELECT
- RS/6000 SP Configuration Database Management
- The RS/6000 SP Configuration Database Management menu appears.
- SELECT
- Enter Database Information
- The Enter Database Information menu appears.
- SELECT
- System Partition Configuration
- The System Partition Configuration menu appears.
- TYPE
- perspectives &
- The SP Perspectives Launch Pad appears.
- SELECT
- smit config_data on CWS
- The RS/6000 SP Configuration Database Management menu appears in a
separate AIX window.
- SELECT
- Enter Database Information
- The Enter Database Information menu appears.
- SELECT
- System Partition Configuration
- The System Partition Configuration menu appears.
Use the System Partitioning Aid to check if the desired system partition
configuration is supplied. The System Partitioning Aid can be invoked
from the command line or from the SP Perspectives Launch Pad. This
section provides examples using the command line interface. (For
information on the SP Perspectives GUI to the System Partitioning Aid, invoke
the Aid with the spsyspar command and view the online help that is
available.) Refer to IBM RS/6000 SP: Planning Volume 2,
Control Workstation and Software Environment for more information on
using the System Partitioning Aid.
To check if the desired system partition configuration is supplied:
- Enter information for your desired system partition configuration into a
file. The template for this file is
/spdata/sys1/syspar_configs/bin/inpfile.template.
- Once you have created the input file, enter:
sysparaid input_file
- If the desired system partition configuration is found, layout directory
information is displayed. Go to Step 3: Archive the system data repository.
- If the desired system partition configuration is not found, a message is
displayed indicating so and stating whether the desired system partition
configuration is possible or not possible. If the system cannot be
partitioned as desired, an error message is output indicating the reason for
the failure. If the desired system partition configuration is possible,
a snapshot of the switch chips in the system and performance data for each
system partition is output to a set of files.
- If the system cannot be partitioned as desired, analyze the error message
and create another input file specifying an alternative system partition
configuration and rerun the sysparaid command.
- If the desired system partition configuration is possible, review the
performance data that is output and, if it is acceptable, proceed to Step 2: Generate and save the system partition configuration you want.
Refer to the PSSP: Command and Technical Reference for
more information on the sysparaid command.
Once you have determined that the system partition configuration you desire
is possible, generate and save it:
sysparaid -s layout_name input_file
The newly generated system partition configuration layout will be saved to
the spdata/sys1/syspar_configs directory.
The smit syspar command is a fastpath to the System Partition
Configuration menu.
Always archive the SDR before partitioning or repartitioning your SP
system. If you change your mind after you have committed a system
partition configuration, or if the task applying a system partition
configuration fails, you can use the archived SDR to recreate the previous
system partition configuration.
- Note:
- When you archive the SDR by using SMIT or the SDRArchive command,
the archive produced is in tar format. Issuing tar -x
for this archive does not restore the system partition configuration.
To restore the system partition configuration, always use the Restore System
Partition Configuration option from the SMIT menu.
At the System Partition Configuration menu:
- SELECT
- Archive System Data Repository
Figure 16. Archive the System Data Repository
View figure.
Enter:
SDRArchive
See the chapter "Planning for system partitions" in the book
IBM RS/6000 SP: Planning Volume 2, Control Workstation and Software
Environment for detailed information on partition schemes for various
size SP systems.
To select a system partition configuration to apply:
- Select a configuration from a list of supported system partition
configurations for your SP system
- Display layout information for the selected system partition configuration
- Select a system partition layout
To select a supported system partition configuration for your SP system,
At the System Partition Configuration menu:
- SELECT
- System Partition Configuration
- A list of system partition configurations appears. (If you have
created layouts using the System Partitioning Aid, such layouts will also be
listed on the SMIT menu.)
- SELECT
- One of the layouts.
Figure 17. Select a system partition configuration from a list
View figure.
-
-
- After you select a layout, your selection is confirmed.
Figure 18. The Select System Partition Configuration SMIT menu
View figure.
To display all supported system partition configurations for your SP
system, enter:
spdisplay_config
To display information about the supported layouts for the system
configuration you have selected,
At the System Partition Configuration menu:
- SELECT
- Display Information for Given Configuration or Layout
- The Display Information for Given Configuration or Layout menu
appears.
-
-
Figure 19. Display information for given configuration or layout menu
View figure.
- SELECT
- OK
- System partition layout information for the chosen system partition
configuration appears.
-
-
Figure 20. Display information for the selected configuration
View figure.
This example shows just the first screen of the layout information
displayed for our selected 4-4-8 system partition configuration.
To display information for the supported layouts for the 4-4-8 system
partition configuration we've chosen, enter:
spdisplay_config -R -d config.4_4_8
Based on the layout information you have displayed for the selected system
partition configuration, select a layout,
At the System Partition Configuration menu:
- SELECT
- Select System Partition Layout
- A list of system partition layouts for the chosen system partition
configuration appears. (If you have created layouts using the System
Partitioning Aid, such layouts will also be listed on the SMIT menu.)
-
-
Figure 21. Select a system partition layout
View figure.
- SELECT
- A system partition layout
Figure 22. Select a system partition layout
View figure.
In this example, we have chosen layout 3 for our selected 4-4-8 system
partition configuration.
To customize a system partition, specify information for the
following:
- System partition name or IP address
- PSSP code level
- Partition default installation image (optional)
- Primary node (optional)
- Security authentication
- Note:
- Partitioning or repartitioning is never a trivial procedure. Just
about every part of the procedure is critical to success. Be fully
aware of the following considerations before you proceed:
- Because the customization information is retained in the custom
file for the partition, the customization step would not have to be repeated
when doing a reconfiguration if the same system partition is being used and
the customization information does not need to be changed.
- It is imperative that all new IP addresses and host names being used will
be resolvable on your SP system.
- If you are repartitioning your system, and your system contains an SP
Switch, you must run Eunpartition in each of the partitions that are
going to change. This prepares the switch in those partitions for
repartitioning. |See "SP Switch recovery".
- Be prepared with values that have been carefully planned for the SP
security authentication configuration.
- During repartitioning, you can move nodes from one partition to
another. However, in a case where you are not installing or customizing
the node, rather you plan to just reboot the node, a fundamental rule applies
regarding authentication methods. You cannot directly move a node to
disjoint authentication configurations - you must migrate to a
configuration within the set that is the union of the authentication
methods. For example, to move a node from a partition with an
authentication configuration that uses k4/compat mode (the value
left of the slash is for remote commands and right of the slash is for SP
trusted services), to a partition that uses only dce mode, first
set the node to k4/compat and dce mode. Then you can set it
to dce only. If you are not installing or customizing the
node, the newly created partitions need to have the same set of authentication
methods as the partition from which the node is moving.
- After all your partitions have been created, do not use the partitioning
tools solely to change the security configuration. To change the
security configuration without repartitioning, see Changing the security configuration.
At the System Partition Configuration menu:
- SELECT
- Enter customization information for a selected system partition
- A list of the system partitions for the chosen configuration layout
appears.
-
-
Figure 23. Customize a system partition
View figure.
- SELECT
- A system partition and enter customization arguments
Figure 24. Customize a system partition
View figure.
- Note:
- If you have already customized this system partition this menu displays those
values. Change the values as desired.
The customization arguments and their meanings are:
- System Partition Name or IP Address
- The name of the system partition is either the real host name (in the case
of the default system partition) or the alias host name of the control
workstation. The IP address of the system partition is either the real
IP address (in the case of the default system partition) or the alias IP
address of the control workstation.
|
- |PSSP Code Level
- |The PSSP version and release: PSSP-3.1,
|PSSP-3.1.1, PSSP-3.2, or
|PSSP-3.4. For system partitions that contain mixed
|levels of PSSP, set this to the earliest level installed in this system
|partition.
- Default Install Image
- The name of the mksysb image that is used to install a node in
this system partition (if the node itself doesn't have an installation
image value). For system partitions that contain mixed levels of PSSP,
this default install image should be associated with the PSSP code level
specified above.
- Primary Node
- The node on the switch that initializes, recovers, provides diagnosis, and
performs other operations to the switch network. The default is the
first node in the nodelist file.
- Backup Primary Node
- Available only on SP Switch systems, the node designated as the oncoming
switch primary node.
- Authentication for Install
- The methods to be installed or configured on each node in the
partition.
|
- |Authorization for root rcmds
- |The set of authorization files to be created or updated for AIX root
|access to remote commands.
- Authentication Methods for AIX rcmds
- The set of authentication methods to be enabled for AIX root access to
remote commands.
- Trusted Service Authentication Methods
- The set of authentication methods to be enabled for use by SP trusted
services.
- System Partition Path
- The full path name for the configuration, layout, and system partition
name.
To list the system partitions for our chosen 4-4-8 system partition
configuration, layout 3, enter:
spdisplay_config config.4_4_8/layout.3
To enter customization information (as shown in our example SMIT menu) for
system partition 1 of our chosen 4-4-8 system partition configuration, layout
3, enter:
spcustomize_syspar -n k43sp1 -l PSSP-3.4 -d bos.obj.min.41 -e default\
-i dce -r dce,std -m k5,std -t dce config.4_4_8/layout.3/syspar.1
Repeat this step, using the appropriate values, for each system partition
in the configuration.
In each partition where you want to use DCE security services, prepare the
SP partition-sensitive services for using DCE authentication:
- To make sure that the new partition interfaces are available in the DCE
database, run the following command:
setupdce -v
- The DCE cell administrator must run the following command for each such
partition:
config_spsec -p syspar
- The root user with default DCE credentials (self-host) must run the
following command for each such partition:
create_keyfiles -p syspar
|
|
|
|If the node recovery feature of the switch admin daemon is running, stop it
|before running the Eunpartition command. Run the
|command:
|stopsrc -s swtadmd
|
|Run the command:
|Eunpartition
When you partition or repartition the system, system partitions are
considered the same if all of the following are identical:
- Node list files
- Topology files
- PSSP code level
- Default install image
- IP address
- Partition name
- Security settings
If any of the above items are not identical, the system partition is
being changed and you need to shut down the nodes in that partition before
applying the system partition configuration. If your system contains an
SP Switch, run the Eunpartition command in each system partition that
is being changed. See the Eunpartition command in the
PSSP: Command and Technical Reference for more
information. |See also "SP Switch recovery".
- Note:
- Modifying only the primary node will not result in a changed system
partition. If you want to change the primary node, use
Eprimary followed by Estart. See the
Eprimary command in the PSSP: Command and Technical
Reference for more information.
You can use the Verify option on the Apply System Partition Configuration
SMIT menu to determine what nodes are changing. The output for the
Verify option lists the changing system partitions as well as any nodes in
those system partitions that are not shut down.
At the System Partition Configuration menu:
- SELECT
- Apply System Partition Configuration
- The previously selected system partition configuration and layout
appears.
- SELECT
- The system partition configuration and layout
- The Apply System Partition Configuration menu appears.
- SELECT
- Verify only from the list of System Partition Apply Options
- SELECT
- OK
Figure 25. Apply System Partition Configuration SMIT menu
View figure.
The Apply System Partition Configuration arguments and their meanings
are:
- System Partition Apply Option
- The options are provided to either only verify the system partition
configuration or to actually apply the system partition configuration.
- Correct VSD configuration?
- The option to correct or discontinue when nonfatal errors are encountered
in the virtual shared disk subsystem in the application of the specified
system partition configuration.
- System Partition Path
- The full path name for the configuration, layout, and system partition
name.
Enter:
spapply_config -v config.4_4_8/layout.3
If you have added an alias for the control workstation for the purpose of
defining a name for a new system partition (see Preparing the control workstation before you define system partitions), run the setup_server command on the control
workstation to properly define the new rcmd principal associated with
the new host name alias.
When you apply or commit a system configuration, the following occurs:
- The existence of all required files (nodelist, topology,
custom) for each system partition in the specified layout directory
is verified. In addition, the contents of the custom file is
checked for completeness.
- Any new system partitions are created on the control workstation.
- The system partition object for each system partition is created in the
SDR.
- Affected node objects in the SDR (Node, Adapter,
host_responds, switch_responds) and affected extension node
objects in the SDR (DependentNode and DependentAdapter) are
moved to the newly created partition.
- New sdrd daemons are created and started.
- New system partition-sensitive subsystems are created and started via the
syspar_ctrl command.
- The Syspar_map information in the SDR is set for each node slot
in the partition.
- The verparvsd command is invoked to verify the virtual shared
disk data for system partitioning. The command extracts all virtual
shared disk data from nodes involved in the system partitioning and writes SDR
commands to update the virtual shared disk data to an output file. The
output file reloads the virtual shared disk SDR data into the correct new
partitions. (Note that the verparvsd command can also be used
prior to applying a system partition configuration to test the desired layout
for the existing virtual shared disk configuration defined in the SDR.
See the PSSP: Command and Technical Reference for more
details.)
- Old unused system partitions on the control workstation, along with their
sdrd daemons, are deleted and old system partition-sensitive
subsystems are deleted.
- The security settings for each partition are saved in the SDR.
- Updated SDR information is checked for accuracy against the information in
the supplied system partition configuration files.
To apply a system partition configuration, be sure you have SDR
administrator credentials for all partitions. If DCE is being used and
you established separate SDR access groups for each partition using the
/spdata/sys1/spsec/spsec-overrides file, then you are required to
have SDR credentials for all existing partitions and for partitions you are
about to create.
At the System Partition Configuration menu:
- SELECT
- Apply System Partition Configuration
- The previously selected system partition configuration and layout appears
- SELECT
- The system partition configuration and layout
- The Apply System Partition Configuration menu appears.
- SELECT
- Apply this config.
- SELECT
- OK
Figure 26. Apply System Partition Configuration SMIT menu
View figure.
To apply our chosen 4-4-8 system partition configuration, layout 3,
enter:
spapply_config -F config.4_4_8/layout.3
| Important |
|---|
|
If a failure occurs at this step, your system is put into an inconsistent
state. Use the sprestore_config command or Restore System
Partition Configuration SMIT menu option to restore the SDR and appropriate
system partition-sensitive subsystems from archive. |
- Note:
- Due to system partitioning changes, your SP_NAME environment variable might
no longer be set to a valid system partition name. To get a list of
valid system partition names, use the splst_syspars -n
command. Then verify that your SP_NAME environment variable is either
not set or set to one of the partition names in the list.
If a new partition contains DCE, complete the DCE configuration by
configuring the admin portion of DCE clients. This command configures
the DCE admin portion only for nodes in a partition with the
auth_install attribute set to dce. For example,
enter:
setupdce -c cell_admin -l /.:/lan_profile
Reboot any nodes that were shut down in Step 8: Shut down all nodes in the changing partitions. Any DCE installation and configuration will be done
on the nodes using the spauthconfig command during the node
reboot.
|
|If you stopped the switch admin daemon in Step 7: Prepare the switch for partitioning, restart it now. Run the command:
|startsrc -s swtadmd
|If you were not using the node recovery feature of the switch admin
|daemon, to reestablish switch recovery and primary node takeover run the
|Estart command.
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