Upgrading from aix 5.3 to ?

funksen · August 29, 2011, 11:06am

Hey guys,

since AIX 5.3 reaches EOS on april 2012, I really need to update my systems asap.

Any experience on upgrading directly to 7.1, with sap/db2/oracle?

could do fresh installs and import my sap/db vgs, but this would be a lot of work

cheers Funksen

h112 · August 29, 2011, 2:04pm

Never been in upgrade process for AIX before 5.3 to 7.1 directly I have the same configuration AIX 5.3 / SAP /Oracle and upgrade from 5.3 to 7.1 seems to be supported as far as I know.
Import sapvg and oravg , will defiantly work but as you said It will need more work.

I think EOS doesn't mean you are completely out of support , especially there are a lot of newer contracts still running 5.3

The EOM date (end of marketing) has been announced for AIX 5.3: 04/11; meaning that AIX 5.3 will no longer be marketed by IBM from April 2011, and that it is now time for customers to start thinking about upgrading to AIX 6.1. The EOS (end of service) date for AIX 5.3 is 04/12, meaning AIX 5.3 will be serviced by IBM until April 2012. After that, IBM will only service AIX 5.3 for an additional fee. The EOL (end of life) date is 04/16, which is the end of life date at April 2016. The final technology level for AIX 5.3 is technology level 12. Some service packs for TL12 will be released though.

IBM has also announced EOM and EOS dates for HACMP 5.4 and PowerHA 5.5, so if you're using any of these versions, you also need to upgrade to PowerHA 6.1:

Sep 30, 2010: EOM HACMP 5.4, PowerHA 5.5

Sep 30, 2011: EOS HACMP 5.4

Sep 30, 2012: EOS HACMP 5.5

zxmaus · August 29, 2011, 9:31pm

yes it is possible to do it directly from 5.3 to 7.1 - IF you are absolutely sure that your applications are supporting the new AIX level and all your firmware is up to date - please see here.

If you use SAP than this is rather questionable as it doesn't only matter on which version you actually are, but as well in which order you might have application patches installed - some patch levels - even when only intermittently installed - can be migrated to 6.1 or 7.1, others cannot.

Additionally, I personally would never even try to do an AIX version upgrade with imported VGs.

If you have a strict separation from application data and OS data, than it might be a lot easier and faster to reinstall the OS from scratch and reimport the VGs. In my company we have a lot of inhouse software that only runs on specific OS versions per package - cleaning up a box, upgrading in place and than installing the new packages takes approx 3x the time it takes me to export the DBs / apps, than install the OS from scratch and than install the new versions.

Regards
zxmaus

funksen · August 30, 2011, 3:45am

thanks for your helpful replies,

I think as long as the sap kernel is supported for 7.1 with the latest patches, there should be no problem with the upgrade to 7.1, but I have to test this of course, and check with IBM
theoretically we have a strict vg separation, BUT I'm sure in real, there are some files here an there in rootvg filesystems.. lets see

what do you think about Power HA 7.1, when upgrading to AIX 7.1, my thought was to also update the Cluster sw to 7.1

I'll keep you updated in this thread about the progress, I'll start in about two weeks with the first test systems

cheers

h112 · September 1, 2011, 1:23pm

Good for you and keep posting here