AIX Version 4.3 Differences Guide

At the end of the install a volume group, altinst_rootvg, is left on the target disks
in the varied off state as a place holder. If varied on, it will show as owning no
logical volumes, but it does, in fact, contain logical volumes. Their definitions
have been removed from the ODM because their names now conflict with the
names of the logical volumes on the running system. It is recommended that you
do not vary on the altinst_rootvg volume group but just leave the definition there
as a place holder.
When the system reboots from the new disk, the former rootvg will not show up in
an lspv listing. The disks that were occupied by the rootvg will show up as not
having a volume group. However, you can still use the bootlist command to
change the bootlist to reboot from the old rootvg if necessary.
When the system is rebooted from the new altinst_rootvg, then lspv will show the
old rootvg as old_rootvg so you will know which disk or disks your previous rootvg
was on. There is also a -q option in alt_disk_install that will allow you to query to
see which disk has the boot logical volume so you can set your bootlist correctly
for cases when old_rootvg has more than one disk.
The alternate root file system is mounted as /alt_inst, so other file systems also
have that prefix (/alt_inst/usr, /alt_inst/var). This is how they must be accessed if
using a customization script.
Note: If you have created an alternate rootvg with alt_disk_install, but no
longer want use it, or you want to run alt_disk_install commands again, do not
run exportvg on altinst_rootvg. Simply run the alt_disk_install -X command to
remove the altinst_rootvg definition from the ODM database.
The reason you cannot run the exportvg command (or the reducevg command) is
that the logical volume names and file systems now have the real names, and
exportvg removes the stanzas for the real file system from /etc/filesystems for the
real rootvg.
If exportvg is run by accident, be sure to recreate the /etc/filesystems file before
rebooting the system. The system will not reboot without a correct
/etc/filesystems file.
6.8.1 alt_disk_install Command Syntax
The following is an example of the alt_disk_install command:
alt_disk_install -d device || -C [-i image.data ] [-s script ] [-R resolv_conf
]
[-D] [-B] [-V] [-r] [-p platform ] [-L mksysb_level ]
[-b bundle_name [ [ -I installp_flags ] [-l images_location ] [-f fix_bundle ]
[-F fixes ] [-e exclude_list ] [-w filesets ] target_disks...
alt_disk_install -X
The following is a description of alt_disk_install flags:
-d device
The value for device can be:
• Tape device - for example, /dev/rmt0.
122 AIX Version 4.3 Differences Guide