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All of my VPD related commands are hanging on one of my Oracle database
servers. lscfg etc... IBM says we need a firmware upgrade, but I cannot
take this server down.

Anybody have any thoughts on this? Oracle is up and running with 200+
branches going strong....

On 2004-11-11, Ken <ucstyle@hotmail.com> wrote:

> servers. lscfg etc... IBM says we need a firmware upgrade, but I cannot
> take this server down.

If you cannot take this server down, you should have created a cluster. Almost
all systems need regular maintenance, during which normal operations are not
possible. If this is not acceptable for the end user(s), you should design the
system so that service is not interrupted when individual parts of the system
are in maintenance.

So, if your problem can only be solved by upgrading firmware, you'll have to
take the server down, I'm afraid.

--
Jurjen Oskam
"I often reflect that if "privileges" had been called "responsibilities" or
"duties", I would have saved thousands of hours explaining to people why
they were only gonna get them over my dead body." - Lee K. Gleason, VMS sysadmin

"Jurjen Oskam" <joskam@quadpro.stupendous.org> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:slrncp91pi.bkn.joskam@calvin.stupendous.org.. .
> On 2004-11-11, Ken <ucstyle@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > servers. lscfg etc... IBM says we need a firmware upgrade, but I cannot
> > take this server down.
>[some snipped]
>
> So, if your problem can only be solved by upgrading firmware, you'll have
to
> take the server down, I'm afraid.
>

Yes.... but there might be more to take into consideration
- if the error occured in spite of you did not upgrade some filesets or lpps
the firmware level is not necessarily the cause of the problem.
- IBM's helpdesk tends to make you upgrade the firmware level /oslevel if
problems occur because this is much easier for them. As long as a particular
error cannot be assigned to a particular error (i.e. that exactly this error
is known already and thus a solution exists) I would be cautious to upgrade
the firmware because of the two following reasons:
- if you upgrade the firmware level and you use an 'old' RML you might then
be forced to upgrade the operating system as a consequence. So if you go
this way make sure that you have the latest RML update at hand. Installing
an RML might again give you a chance to reboot.
- if you upgrade the RML you might be forced to install some patches for
Oracle...
You are getting the picture. So check you service contract whether it is a
conditio sine qua non that IBM will help only if you use the latest firmware
and if it is not kick their shinbone. However should you find out that
upgrading the firmware is your only chance then you are out of luck. As
Jurjen pointed out already you cannot have your car's wheels changed while
driving in circles round the garage. Coming to think about it: IBM says that
even an HACMP cluster is not suitable for true 24x7 - and you are running a
single server you cannot reboot over night or over the weekend? Hmmh, maybe
you can try a background reboot: # sync; sync; sync; reboot &

Regards,
Andreas ;-)

Disclaimer: The information given here is for experts only. Kids, don't try
this yourself!

On 2004-11-12, Andreas Schulze <b79xan@gmx.de> wrote:

>> So, if your problem can only be solved by upgrading firmware, you'll have
>> to take the server down, I'm afraid.

> - IBM's helpdesk tends to make you upgrade the firmware level /oslevel if
> problems occur because this is much easier for them. As long as a particular

That is why I added the "if your problem can only be solved by upgrading
firmware". I'm well aware of IBM support saying to upgrade to a later
level of $WHATEVER if they get even the tiniest of chances...

--
Jurjen Oskam
"I often reflect that if "privileges" had been called "responsibilities" or
"duties", I would have saved thousands of hours explaining to people why
they were only gonna get them over my dead body." - Lee K. Gleason, VMS sysadmin

Jurjen Oskam <joskam@quadpro.stupendous.org> wrote in message news:<slrncp9gpe.ce1.joskam@calvin.stupendous.org> ...
> On 2004-11-12, Andreas Schulze <b79xan@gmx.de> wrote:
>
> >> So, if your problem can only be solved by upgrading firmware, you'll have
> >> to take the server down, I'm afraid.
>
> > - IBM's helpdesk tends to make you upgrade the firmware level /oslevel if
> > problems occur because this is much easier for them. As long as a particular
>
> That is why I added the "if your problem can only be solved by upgrading
> firmware". I'm well aware of IBM support saying to upgrade to a later
> level of $WHATEVER if they get even the tiniest of chances...

THANKS everyone.

We have a maintenance window (we had to have one to at least have IBM
check out the ops panel) so that's not a problem. However, not wanting
to quickly update the firmware level, is there a way I can further
diagnois the problem? I can't run any commands that look at the VPD

THANKS