Multiple boot disks in AIX 3.1?

[Steve_Lammert at TRANSARC.COM]

We would like to keep multiple variant versions of AIX 3.1 around,
and be able to boot these variant versions on demand.  For instance, we'd
like to have one disk with 3002, one disk with 3003, etc. so that we can
run various programs under several different releases.

Assuming we used identically sized disks (don't want to confuse the NVRAM),
we could "plug and play" any number of disks with identical SCSI addresses.
However, we're talking multiple internal disks on a model 530, and it
would be a pain to constantly reopen the cabinet and pull cables.
Ideally, we'd like to keep all disks spinning at the same time.

We've had some minor success using the boot/install floppies
to change the default boot device so that we can boot different disks
(this usually ends up 888ing the system, but the boot device DOES change).

If this were a conventional UNIX workstation (DEC, SUN, HP, ...) I could
just tell the diagnostic monitor which disk to boot.  Is there any
alternative to the methods described above?  Yes, I've looked for a
SMIT menu entry ...

Thanks!

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  Steve Lammert          | Gulf Tower           | Internet: shl at transarc.com
  Facilities Coordinator | 707 Grant Street     | Voice:     +1 412 338-4443
  Transarc Corporation   | Pittsburgh PA  15219 | FAX:       +1 412 338-4404
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