How to update Vios

The first method requires the administrator to manually create the NIM resource on the Nim Master, using the resource to complete the NIM update of the VIOS system, and the second method to complete the VIOS update using the IBM Systems Director management interface of the system management software.

For power system administrators, mastering these two methods, and flexibly completing VIOS upgrades and updates, can more efficiently manage the VIOS system in the maintenance environment.

These two methods are introduced and compared through examples to help administrators understand and master the basic skills of these two VIOS updates, and choose the appropriate method to complete the VIOS system update according to their management needs.

Introduction to VIOS Update

Frequently used VIOS updates, IBM will be regularly posted on IBM Support Fix, where users can download the updates based on the VIOS version of the information they use. These updates can be classified by type as a revision pack (fix pack), Service Pack (Services Pack), and Temporary update package (Ifix,interim fix).

The fix pack is a major version of the update, including product enhancements, new features and some Fix combinations and a rigorous test installation package.

The service pack is the Services update package, which is an update package made by fix for a common, critical problem for a particular fix pack between the fix pack;

Interim fix is an emergency patch for a temporary critical issue that can only be applied to a specific version.

Traditional method of VIOS update

Traditional VIOS updates, users often need to put the update package on the VIOS system (or use NFS to Mount the update package to the VIOS system), and then use VIOS's own command Updateios complete the update to the VIOS itself. The specific commands used are as follows.

$updateios-accept-install–dev <Path_Of_Update_In_VIOS>

Where Path_of_update_in_vios is the path where the update package is placed in the VIOS system.

This method requires the administrator to log on to the VIOS system to perform the corresponding upgrade Update command, for a large number of power servers in the data center, a large number of VIOS systems need to be regularly updated, it is necessary to consume a lot of time and effort, is obviously not a feasible method.

Considering that VIOS itself is also a special AIX system, the update packages themselves can be installed through Nim Master by creating Lpp_resource resources on Nim master.

Here's an example to see how to use NIM Master to complete VIOS updates. In this case, we will use NIM Master to update the VIOS system version 2.2.1.0 to 2.2.1.4.

Manual completion of VIOS updates using NIM Master

To complete the update of the VIOS 2.2.1.4, you actually maintain a lpp_resource resource, and when any VIOS update package is released, add this new update package to an existing lpp_resource, thereby passing this updated Lpp_resource resource Update the VIOS system.

So, the first task for users is to create an initial Lpp_resource resource in NIM Master, which can usually be done when the first VIOS version is installed.

Create Lpp_resource with AIX DVD Image

Theoretically, we should use the VIOS 2.2.1.0 DVD installation CD to generate Lpp_resource resources through the NIM command, but we typically encounter the following error during the creation process.

(1) root @ xnw3056::/vios/cd1/usr/sys/inst.images
# nim-o define-t lpp_source-a source=/vios/cd1-a  -A \
          LOCATION=/EXPORT/NIM/VIO2210/VIO2210LPP VIO2210LPP
Preparing to copy install images (this'll take several Minutes)
    
... ... now checking for
    
missing install images ...
warning:0042-265 c_mk_lpp_source:the Image source "/VIOS/CD1" that was
        used to define the Lpp_source is missing one  Or more of the following from the
        list of default packages:
    
...
    
warning:0042-267 c_mk_lpp_source:the defined Lpp_source does not have
        the ' simages ' attribute because one or more of the following packages are
        :

The above error shows that the Simages property cannot be set, which means that we cannot use this lpp_resource to do the NIM RTE to install the LPAR, but the package is actually available for update operations.

But in order to avoid the above problem, we can use another method to generate Lpp_resource resources.

Based on the first content of the VIOS DVD, we can confirm the Oslevel information for VIOS 2.2.1.0, because VIOS itself is based on a specific Aix-customized appliance, which is actually the version information of Aix that it uses.

# Cat/vios/cd1/oslevel

Oslevel= 6.1.7.0

From the output above, VIOS 2.2.1.0 is using the AIX 6.1 TL7 version. We can use the AIX 6.1 TL7 installation CD to generate Lpp_resource resources. Also mount the first DVD installation CD to/VIOS/CD1, using the same command as above, you can create a lpp_resource resource.

(1) root @ xnw3056::/

# nim-o define-t lpp_source-a source=/vios/cd1-a server=master-a \

LOCATION=/EXPORT/NIM/VIO2210/VIO2210LPP VIO2210LPP VIO2210LPP

After this Lpp_resource resource creation is complete, we will modify this Lpp_resource resource to include the latest updates after the VIOS update package is released.

Update Lpp_resource based on Fix Pack and Service Pack package;

When VIOS 2.2.1.4 was released, we could download the update package from IBM Support Fix, which we named the download package as Vio2214.iso. Now we are beginning to update the original Lpp_resource resources.

First, mount the ISO file to the NIM folder/CD

(1) root @ xnw3056::/

# loopmount-i 2214.iso-o "-v cdrfs-o ro"-m/cd