backupios 1

[khalidaaa]

Hi all,

I have a test VIO server that i want to backup (coz i'm gonna use its disks for something else). I have three partitions using it and two of them running hacmp (mutual takeover cluster). Now i want to recreate the exact configuration currently there when i need to. I read about backupios and i actually used it to backup an nfs directory (on my nim master machine) and it finished and i got the nim_resources.tar file over there with an empty SPOT under data_282806 directory (which i find it wired!)

The VIO contains three volume groups (rootvg, testvg, test2vg) (do i need to do something like savevg as well for the other vgs?

The command i used was this:

backupios -file /nim_images_nfs

Is this enough to backup the above environment for future restore?

Note: I won't wipe out the LPARs themselves! and i already backup them up on DVD so no worries about this area!

Regards,
Khalid

 

[khalidaaa]

I just got this link:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infoc...pic=/iphb1/iphb1_vios_backup_restore_file.htm

and this:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infoc...jsp?topic=/iphb1/iphb1_vios_backup_backup.htm

But it is still confusing! when it says that i have first to backup using the backupios and then do savevgstruct volume_group! shouldn't that be before so the backupios picks it up!?!?!

In situations where you plan to restore the Virtual I/O Server to a new or different system (for example, in the event of a system failure or disaster), you need to back up both the Virtual I/O Server and user-defined virtual devices.

hmmmmm!?!

Regards,
Khalid

 

[KPKIND]

Hi Khalid,

Of late, I am looking in to a proper backup strategy for my place here. With the current info and the readings of manuals I have done, if you want to restore all your VIO setup as it is, then it requires multiple level of backups and some manual documentation as well.

1.backupios (which u have already run)- From what I understand - this does the backup of the rootvg and also any active VG's/storage pools at the time of running backupios. If all the VG's/Storage pools are active at the time of running backupios, you dont need to run the savevgstruct command.

2.Backup of partition profile data from your HMC

3.Manual documentation of which adapter is in which VLAN and SEA configuration and virtual disk configuration as well.

Once I try this out completely I will keep you guys posted. One thing I have tried is running backupios and restoring on the same system using NIM. I am sure that works, very soon I will try the rest of the steps and let you know.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

 

[khalidaaa]

Thanks KPKIND for your valuable post! Finally someone replied

well, i'm afraid this came a little bit late! I had no choice but to free the disks to my production server as this has been given higher priority!

But as you mentioned above, I used the backupios to an nfs mount from the NIM master (never tired to restore though!) and i backed up my clients connected to the VIO (mksysb) and i (manually) documented the vscsi machines (lsdev -virtual and other commands like lsmap -all)

So i did almost what you adviced here! But never tried to recreate the environment back coz i don't have any free disks for now any way!

I don't remember where i kept the document which describes the above but i have this document which i used as well for the backup:

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/aix/library/au-aix-vioserver-v2/index.html

again thank you for your help. Star Deserved

Regards,
Khalid