Strategies for Replicating HP-UX 11i Virtual Systems onto Physical and Virtual Integrity Servers

Local Cloning and Deployment
Options for Deployment Depending on Connectivity
There are several approaches available for cloning systems using either storage area network (SAN) or local
area network (LAN) connectivity.
When the source and target systems are both virtual machines and they share connection to the same SAN,
then using the approach described in the white paper Using Dynamic Root Disk to Clone Integrity Virtual
Machines is very convenient.
LAN connectivity lends itself to cloning and deployment techniques such as the concept of golden images
available with Ignite-UX. You create an image of the source, i.e., golden system and then use it to replicate
systems using an Ignite-UX server on the network or using virtual DVDs mapped to ISO files containing the
golden image. Both of these techniques are detailed in the HP white paper Using Ignite-UX with Integrity
Virtual Machines, available from http://docs.hp.com/en/vse.html.
Another alternative is to use the make_net_recovery functionality of Ignite-UX for local system cloning and
deployment. Some care needs to be taken so that the target system’s MAC address is used instead of that
used by the (original) source system. The System Recovery section of the Ignite-UX Administration Guide along
with the white paper Successful System Cloning using Ignite-UX, both available from http://docs.hp.com/, are
excellent resources.
Remote Cloning and Deployment
When no LAN or SAN connection exists between the source system and target system, solutions such as
dynamic root disk and the use of Ignite-UX servers for network installation are not feasible. In such scenarios, it
is often desirable to clone the system, putting its image on media (e.g. tape) and physically transporting the
media to the target system site. Two basic approaches are available through Ignite-UX functionality – golden
images and recovery media. Refer to the Ignite-UX product documentation referenced above for details.
For remote replication using tape and Ignite-UX’s make_tape_recovery, verify that you are using a version
of Ignite-UX on the source system that supports the tape drives on both the source and target systems.
For smaller system images, the use of optical media – CD or DVD – may be possible. This option is available
for systems with image sizes less than 4 GB in size. For such scenarios use the Ignite-UX utility
make_media_install to create the image of the source system.
Golden Images
You can create an image of the source system, referred to as a golden image, using Ignite-UX tools such as
make_media_install. Transfer that golden image to physical media using an attached I/O device (as
discussed above). Subsequently the media may be loaded and installed onto the target system.
Recovery Media
Rather than create a golden image of a system, one may choose to use the make_tape_recovery utility
available with the Ignite-UX product. After attaching the tape drive to the source virtual system, invoke
make_tape_recovery as you would for any Integrity system. Subsequently, the media created may be
loaded onto the target system via its tape drive.
While some systems may not have local tape connectivity (e.g., the system does not support USB tape drives),
keep in mind that SAN-based tape access can be used for the deployment.
In some cases one may have to resort to the so-called “2 step” Ignite-UX installation to install from sequential
media. See the Ignite-UX product documentation for details.