TROUBLE WITH EXTERNAL DISK; WANTS TO REORGANIZE FILESYSTEMS
ITEM: RTA000028348
QUESTION:
My customer has an RS/6000 320 with 2 disks, an internal 320MB disk
and an external 670MB (non-IBM) disk. He has been having a lot of
trouble with his external disk and would like to organize his file-
systems in such a way that he won't have to reinstall the whole OS
whenever he has a disk failure and needs to remove his external
disk.
The internal disk is in the rootvg, but he has the external disk in
another vg called externalvg. Because the rootvg is on the smaller
disk, my customer is worried about running out of disk space in the
rootvg. One solution would be to have the /usr in the externalvg,
but I read in item number BGCBQ in ASKQ that /usr must be part of
the root volume root because this is the only volume group varied
on at IPL and if /usr is moved out of rootvg programs in /usr will
not be accessible. What then can my customer do? He doesn't want
to load all of the program products (IBM and non-IBM) into
/usr because he'll run out of space fast. Is there a way he can
install the lpps on his second disk in the externalvg? Basically,
what he needs to know is the best way to expand the /usr filesystem
when he has 2 volume groups and he doesn't have enough room on the
rootvg to expand /usr? I would appreciate any help you can provide.
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A: Here are some things for you to look at:
o When you install a Program Temporary Fix (PTF) via the System
Management Interface Tool (SMIT), there are several menu options which
could be selected/modified to reduce the space requirements of the PTF
during it's installation. When you install a PTF with the default
settings via SMIT, a backup copy of all of the code and data files
that the PTF replaces is made. These backup files allow the system
administrator to reverse the installation of a PTF (if desired) and
provide a level of insurance during the installation of a PTF by
saving all data and code that is being replaced. These backup
copies make it easier to recover should the installation of a PTF
fail in process because of power failure, for example.
By selecting and modifying the appropriate SMIT menu options, you
can force the install process to:
1) Force the PTF into the COMMIT status.
2) Remove the backup copies of the replaced files/code.
The result of this is that the PTF requires only slightly more room
than that which already exists, rather than double or even triple that
amount.
The smit menu options you can change to achieve this when installing
a PTF are:
COMMIT software? .yes.
SAVE replaced files? .no.
"." is a left bracket, and "." is a right bracket.
Notice that the above example SMIT selections show that you
want to commit the software, and that you do not want to save
the replaced files. This should dramatically reduce the space
requirements for the installation of any PTF.
o If you have installed many PTFs and LPPs, it is possible that
there are a large number of backup files from those installations
that still exist.
These backup files can be found in the following directories:
/usr/lpp//inst_U40XXXX
/usr/lpp//deinstl
Where can be replaced with things like: "pcsim" or bos"
and "inst_U40XXXX" is a PTF number such as "inst_U401234".
These files exist so that a PTF or LPP can be removed.
Their contents are those data and code that the new PTFs and
LPPs have replaced. In order to remove an LPP or PTF
that you do not want, you have to have the original code and
data that they replaced. These files are no longer necessary
once their respective LPPs and PTFs are in the COMMITted state.
They can not be removed once their respective LPPs or PTFs are
COMMITted. WARNING˘˘˘˘˘ DO NOT REMOVE ANY OF THESE FILES ON
ON A SYSTEM THAT IS INTENDED FOR USE AS A "/USR" SERVER. THESE
FILES ARE ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY FOR THE CREATION OF "/USR" CLIENTS.
If you have many of these files, you will notice that they often
take up as much as 1-5 MB each. The removal of these files will
save you a tremendous amount of room.
o You are entirely correct that it is dangerous and unsupported to
move the /usr filesystem from the root volume group.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to modify the installation
process in order to allow PTFs/LPPs to be installed on or utilize
the non-rootvg disk space to conserve room.
A final suggestion I have would be to move the "/u"on"/home"
filesystem out of the root volume group, if your customer has not
already done so. (I suspect that your customer has already done so,
and this is what he/she uses the 670 OEM drive for).
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This item was created from library item Q616080 BXSDG
Additional search words:
AVAILABILITY AVAILABLE BXSDG FEB93 INSTALL INSTALLED IX OP OZNEW
PRODUCT PROG PROGRAM PROGRAMMABLE PROGRAMMER PROGRAMMING RISCOSO
RISCSYSTEM ROOTVG SOFTWARE SPACE SPACING SYS USR VG 2ND
WWQA: ITEM: RTA000028348 ITEM: RTA000028348
Dated: 11/1996 Category: RISCOSO
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