[buckeyedog]

I am new to AIX as most newbie's are(lol), I need to migrate data from hdisk 2 and hdisk 3 to a SAN volume. I heard migratepv is the best way to migrate PV's from physical disk to another. I also heard that this can be done without any interruption of data access. can someone please help me understand how to perform this task.. Thanks!

[ross.mather]

Migrate pv is not the best way to do this. What is important in all these cases is how your Volume Groups are set up.

If you have one volume group with both hdisk2 and hdisk3 in it you can simply mirror the data to the SAN volume and then unmirror the data off the local hdisks.

The example here is based on the volume group being called volumevg and the data mirrored on hdisk2 and hdisk3. The new SAN volume is called hdisk4

So:
# Extend the Volume group with the new volume
extendvg volumevg hdisk4

# create the new mirror on hdisk4
mirrorvg -c3 -s volumevg hdisk4

# sync the data
syncvg -P32 -v volumevg

# Now remove the mirrors on the original volumes
unmirrorvg -c 1 volumevg hdisk2 hdisk3

# finally remove those disks from the volume group
reducevg volumevg hdisk2 hdisk3

[buckeyedog]

Does this keep the filesystems intact?? Here is my example:

# lsvg -l oraclevg
oraclevg:
LV NAME TYPE LPs PPs PVs LV STATE MOUNT POINT
u01 jfs2 500 1000 2 open/syncd /u01/oracle
u02 jfs2 500 1000 2 open/syncd /u02/oracle
loglv00 jfs2log 1 2 2 open/syncd N/A
paging00 paging 14 14 1 open/syncd N/A

# lsvg -p oraclevg
oraclevg:
PV_NAME PV STATE TOTAL PPs FREE PPs FREE DISTRIBUTION
hdisk2 active 558 43 00..00..00..00..43
hdisk3 active 558 57 00..00..00..00..57
hdisk4 active 558 58 00..00..00..00..58
hdisk5 active 558 58 00..00..00..00..58

I have another vg called called san_oraclevg which consists on the following:

san_oraclevg:
PV_NAME PV STATE TOTAL PPs FREE PPs FREE DISTRIBUTION
vpath5 active 24 3 00..00..00..00..03
vpath6 active 24 0 00..00..00..00..00
vpath19 active 24 0 00..00..00..00..00
vpath20 active 24 0 00..00..00..00..00
vpath33 active 24 0 00..00..00..00..00
vpath34 active 24 0 00..00..00..00..00
vpath47 active 24 0 00..00..00..00..00
vpath48 active 24 0 00..00..00..00..00
vpath61 active 24 0 00..00..00..00..00
vpath62 active 24 0 00..00..00..00..00
vpath75 active 24 0 00..00..00..00..00
vpath76 active 24 0 00..00..00..00..00
vpath89 active 24 0 00..00..00..00..00
vpath90 active 24 0 00..00..00..00..00
vpath103 active 24 0 00..00..00..00..00
vpath104 active 24 0 00..00..00..00..00


My issue here is I want to move it to a new VG and I would like to keep u01 and u02 FS's the same as far as naming conventions. How do I proceed to accomplish this?

[ross.mather]

The procedure I outlined will move the data, but keep the volume group intact. This can be done online without bringing the application down. If you want to move the data to another volume group you'll need to shut the application down and move the data manually.

In that case you would need to physically move the data.

I would:
# Delete the san_oraclevg
# add the vpaths to the existing oraclevg, and then follow the process outlined above.

The only difference is that you need to use extendvg4vp rather than extendvg.

[buckeyedog]

Great, i will give this a try and let you know.. I am assuming I will get this accomplished in a couple of weeks once the DBA's are ready to move off internal disks.. Thanks Ross!