Multibos support

You can use multibos to deploy fix packs updates to endpoints with a standby base operating system (BOS) instance without impacting the active BOS instance. By doing so, you can ensure continuous operation of the VIOS operating system on the endpoint.

With multibos, you can create two separate bootable instances of the BOS within the same root volume group (rootvg). You can simultaneously maintain these two bootable instances of a BOS. The instance of a BOS that is associated with the booted boot logical volume (BLV) is the active BOS, while the other instance that has not been booted is called the standby BOS. Only two instances of BOS are supported per rootvg.

Use multibos in environments with tight maintenance windows to manage system downtime and risk when upgrading the endpoints.

Requirements

The following are the general requirements and limitations on operating system, space, and logical volumes for multibos:
  • The multibos utility is supported on VIOS version greater than 3.1.3.0.
  • The current rootvg must have enough space for each BOS logic volume.
  • The total number of copied logical volumes cannot exceed 128. The total number of copied logical volumes and shared logical volumes are subject to volume group limits.
The VIOS Advanced Deployment Wizard was enhanced to include a section mainly for the following multibos operations:
  • Multibos express task: Creating a BOS and deploying FP updates to it
  • Creating a standby BOS
  • Deploying FP updates
  • Updating the boot list
  • Removing a standby BOS.