Re: save and restore to do OS upgrade

On 28-Apr-2016 08:25 -0500, Rob Berendt wrote:

On 28-Apr-2016 08:03 -0500, Ketzes, Larry wrote:

I know how bad this is to do for about a hundred reasons, but I
want to know if it is even possible. I have a satellite office
that wants to perform a full save at 5.3 (don't ask), then restore
it to a 7.1 system. I was always under the impression that you
could skip one version but no more. So that they could go from
5.3, skip 5.4, and land on 6.1. But 7.1 does not jive with my
understanding of what is possible.

This is doable, and published.

Uh, No... Excepting when there is documentation of the specific path, i.e. for a specific origin-release and specific target-release, and for which there was specific software provided [esp. on the origin-release] to assist in effecting that [typically unsupported] migration. So if specifically-documented v5r3->v7r1 migration scenario exists, then follow those instructions.

It is called a "migration" and not an "upgrade".

The published\supported migrations do *not support* the N+3 scenario described by the OP, being migration from v5r3 to v7r1; i.e. v5r3(+0)->v5r4(+1)->v6r1(+2)->v7r1(+3) is unsupported

The IBM i OS and LPP software are designed to support conversion only from N-2 releases; they may by their nature be able to, in some cases, effect conversion from earlier, but there is no intentional design nor testing to ensure that is possible.

I would read the MTU (Memo To Users) for 5.4, 6.1 and 7.1.
Follow the steps at:
[http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_71/rzamc/rzamc1.htm]

Conspicuously, the only _supported_ migrations documented there [the link above], are from v5r4->v7r1 and v6r1->v7r1 per the docs stating that "This information describes how to migrate your data to IBM i 7.1 from IBM i 5.4 or later." By omitting mention o v5r3, that is an unsupported release for effecting a migration using those procedures presented in that documentation.

Caveat: I've never done this process for something more than two
releases back and their scenarios only cover that.

Good thing, because the consequences of attempting those procedures on anything greater than N+2 can cause many subtle and blatant failures\difficulties; issues that may persist but go unnoticed many weeks or months into the future, and possibly even impact the ability to perform successfully, a future upgrade.

I've normally only done this scenario for releases too old for newer
hardware but still not more than two releases back..

Wait for comments from others.

Biggest concern coming from pre-6.1 to 6.1-and-higher is object
conversion issues.
[http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_61/rzahc/rzahcwhatnew.htm]
There should be ptf's for V5R3 to assist with this.

In the scenario of the OP, by restoring only user-data [and ensuring not to restore any quasi-system\quasi-user data libraries; e.g. QUSRSYS, QGPL, QSYS2, et al], the conversions [re-encapsulation\re-translation] of their [and 3rd party] programs would likely be their biggest issue for preparation.