Need documentation on mirroring root drive in Solaris 10

[kail1970]

 Hi,

Is there a document describing how to mirror the root drive using veritas VxVM? I need this on Solairs 10

I saw some instructions here:
http://sysunconfig.net/unixtips/jmr_Mirroring_Boot_Disks_Veritas_Volume_Manager.htm

But these seem to include initializing the root disk - how do I do that while the systme is UP?? Doe sit run from the image in memory?

Kailash Kumar

[lepsal]

I've never done a disk mirror with Veritas before, so take the advice with a grain of salt. You probably should have a backup of the root disk before doing this. Or be able to readily reinstall the system using something like a Jumpstart server or OS media. There are directions for encapsulating a root drive in Chapter 2 of the Veritas Volume Manager Administrator's Guide (version 5.0 of Veritas Storage Foundation). From other searches I've done, you are able to do a root disk encapsulation while online, but you need to reboot at least once, maybe more Once that is done, here is a Symantec Tech note for making a bootable mirror. http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/245238.htm

[g_lee · Accepted solution]

Note that the technote above (TN 245238) is for creating dual bootable rootdgs/bootdgs (ie: mirror the rootdisk, then detach and set up as separate bootable disk/environment) - which is useful but will not mirror the rootdisk as you originally requested.

To mirror the rootdisk with VxVM, you need to encapsulate the rootdisk if you haven't already done so (requires multiple reboots), then mirror the rootdisk onto rootmirror using with vxdiskadm (option 6 - MIrror Volumes on a Disk).

See details from VxVM Administrator's guide here for mirroring an encapsulated root disk:
http://sfdoccentral.symantec.com/sf/5.0/solaris/html/vxvm_admin/ag_ch_disks_vm28.html

Details to encapsulate the rootdisk (if not already done) here:
http://sfdoccentral.symantec.com/sf/5.0/solaris/html/vxvm_admin/ag_ch_disks_vm23.html

Once the rootdisk has been mirrored you should be able to boot from either rootdisk or rootmirror; the dual-boot described in the TN is more for scenarios such as patching/upgrade so you have a backup/can rollback to original state if needed (eg: you mirror the bootdisk, then detach the rootmirror, set up the alt boot environment, make changes to the original bootdisk; if something goes wrong and you need to back out, you should be able to boot off the alt/detach bootdg you set up earlier to get back to previous state)

hope that helps

[lepsal]

That was good information, g_lee. That will help me with my current project of creating a mirrored root disk and writing a policy for doing patches.