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jplangan's avatar
jplangan
12 years ago

Mount HP-UX VXFS 6 filesystem on Redhat Linux Server?

Here goes:

I have a need to migrate a numebr of large files from several servers to a linux based system from HP-UX 11.23.

The data resides on VXFS version 6 filesystems on san storage.

I have found LVM tools that allow me to make the MVM structures visible as disks that show up in device mapper on the linux side and I can run strings and dd on the luns and they SEEM to contain the appropriate data.

The data itself is in Intersystems Cache database chunks.  If I can get the actual files copied over, I can do an endian conversion on them and start using them immediately in the new environment.  My problem is transport.  I have several 32 GB file that need to be moved and while I haven't done time tests, I am assuming the actual migration time may be prohibitive.

I have downloaded a trial of Storage Essentials and installed it on the linux server, but after I make the logical volume visible, I getthe following error when trying to perform the mount:

UX:vxfs mount.vxfs: ERROR: V-3-25584: /dev/mapper/vg1220625654-lvol1 is not a supported device

UX:vxfs mount.vxfs: ERROR: V-3-24996: Unable to get disk layout version

Any help is appreciated.  I have been searching high and low on the web, but can't seem to find any current threads about this.  There are some older ones about freevxfs that used toexist for linux, but they all said it doesn't work with newer versions of vxfs filesystems.

 

Thanks!

 

 

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  • Clifford_Barcli's avatar
    Clifford_Barcli
    Level 3
    12 years ago

    Hi.

     

    The issue is probably this: HP-UX is big endian.  Linux, little endian.  VxFS has tools available to convert the data, offline, but in place.  These tools work well for most data types.  Binary data, such as database files, may need additional conversions.  Detaile instructions can be found in this admin guides and in this whitepaper.  Just login with your free Symantec creditials (SORT, license protal, support portal, etc):

    http://www4.symantec.com/Vrt/wl?tu_id=TBTM1352428816657728604

    If the original disks are not in CDS format, then they will need to be converted from "sliced" to CDS perform performing the endian conversion.

     

    Also, make sure you upgrade to the lastest version of VxFS and VxVM.  For SF 6.0.x, the VxFS is version 9.  Coming later this year, SF 6.1 will require version 10 to take advantage of latest features.  Regardless, it is generally a good idea to upgrade VxFS and VxVM each time you make a major upgrade to SF.  NOTE: generally, upgrading SF bits does NOT upgrade VxFS/VxVM layouts.

    Also see this paper for VxFS performance on Linux:

    http://www4.symantec.com/Vrt/wl?tu_id=TBTM1352428816657728604

     

    Let me know if this helps.

     

    Cheers

  • mikebounds's avatar
    mikebounds
    Level 6
    12 years ago

    To migrate data between HP-ux and Linux you need to:

    1. If data is not already in VxVM volumes then you need to convert from LVM to VxVM
    2. Deport diskgroup from one platform and import on another
    3. Convert filesystem if different endian

    There is a section on converting LVM to VxVM and using CDS to migrate between platforms in the SFHA solutions guide ,so see "Migrating data" section in 

    http://sort-cdn.symantec.com/public/documents/sfha/6.0.1/hp-ux/productguides/pdf/sfhas_solutions_601_hpux.pdf

    http://www.symantec.com/business/support/resources/sites/BUSINESS/content/live/DOCUMENTATION/5000/DOC5862/en_US/sfhas_solutions_601_lin.pdf 

    Whether Little or big endian is used I think depends on Architecture more than platform, so if HP-ux is on RISC and Linux is on Intel, you will have to convert, but if Linux and Hp-ux are both on the same Architecture, you may not need to convert filesystem.

    Mike