Hi!

* aixdude@yahoo.com <aixdude@yahoo.com>:
>
> Need to use alt_disk_intstall or multibos for back out on reboot, or
> mksysb for back out on restore. Anyone played with the new AIX multibos
> command that came with 5300-03 on a test system yet? Comments welcomed.

I tested multibos on a spare LPAR yesterday.

It worked as it should, no troubles. :-)

I had a 53ML03 base system, did a "multibos -s -X" and the result was:

hdisk0:
LV NAME LPs PPs DISTRIBUTION MOUNT POINT
roothome 5 5 00..05..00..00..00 /root
loglv00 1 1 00..01..00..00..00 N/A
bos_hd9var 1 1 00..00..01..00..00 /bos_inst/var
bos_hd2 8 8 00..00..08..00..00 /bos_inst/usr
bos_hd4 1 1 00..00..01..00..00 /bos_inst
bos_hd5 1 1 01..00..00..00..00 N/A
bos_hd10opt 1 1 00..00..01..00..00 /bos_inst/opt
bos_hd1 1 1 00..00..01..00..00 /bos_inst/home
hd10opt 1 1 00..00..01..00..00 /opt
hd1 1 1 00..00..01..00..00 /home
hd3 4 4 00..00..04..00..00 /tmp
hd9var 1 1 00..00..01..00..00 /var
hd2 8 8 00..00..08..00..00 /usr
hd4 1 1 00..00..01..00..00 /
hd8 1 1 00..00..01..00..00 N/A
hd6 15 15 00..15..00..00..00 N/A
hd5 1 1 01..00..00..00..00 N/A

You can now set the bootlist to "hdisk0 blv=hd5" to boot the current
system, or to "hdisk0 blv=bos_hd5" to boot the cloned system.

Ah, btw, of course you need enough free PPs to clone the installation in
the beginning, but that shouldn't be a problem on current systems.

Well, I now migrated AIX53ML03 to AIX53TL04. Rebooted, "oslevel -r"
showed "5300-04" as it should. Then I set the bootlist to "hdisk0
blv=bos_hd5", rebooted, oslevel reported "5300-03".

I experimented a little and found no problem yet.
When you boot from the cloned bos_* LVs, you also may delete the former
system with "multibos -R", and clone the clone again with "multibos -s",
so there is no distinction between original and clone.

Well, I guess the multibos is also useful as a cheap means of filesystem
backup, for cases where a "rm -fr" was done carelessly in the wrong
directory, as you either can just reboot with a changed bootlist, or
mount the clone and copy over the deleted stuff.

Regards,

Kai.