Bit by bit copy

[SeanAIX430]

I have an old e20 server that is extremely important to our company. However I can't even get new HD's for it anymore, and have had to replace a few. At this point I have the OS and all the data on one 9g drive. It is the only drive in the machine and I have a mksysb tape offsite and I take a backup of the data offsite with me everyday. I have another 9g drive that I would like to install and based on your recommendations set it up as a mirror or just as a backup solution. I don't always remember to insert a new tape everyday. So is there a way to just make a straight copy of one drive to another in AIX? I have done it in windows, but not in Unix. If that is possible should I just run that once and tape one of the drives offsite and keep doing my regular backup? Or can I mirror the two drives? Or can I run two backups per night, one to tape and another of everything to the second drive?

Recommendations would be great, thanks!

 

[kHz]

dd if you want to use that method

OR

extendvg VG NEWDISK
mirrorvg VG

 

[DukeSSD]

I think mirroring the drive is the safest bet.
Install the new drive and after booting you should have a new disk.
Then extend the volume group to include the new disk.
Then you need to mirror the VG onto the new disk.
Then you need to bosboot the new disk to make it bootable, incase the old disk fails.
Then you need to add it to the boot list, so the system can boot it, if the old disk fails.
Keep taking the backups and keep taking them off site.

 

[SeanAIX430]

Thank you both for your suggestions, I think mirroring is a good idea myself. I understand the concepts your telling me to do, but I do not know the commands to get it done. Anyone know of a step-by-step instruction writeup somewhere online?

Are these the correct steps?

http://www.pimpworks.org/ibm/aix.mirror.html

 

[needcoffee]

Check out this Redbook from IBM on LVM:

http://publib-b.boulder.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/RedbookAbstracts/sg245432.html?Open

Chapter 2 and Appendix A go into mirroring rootvg. It is a little different than mirroring any other VG. Pay attention to the section on Dump Devices before starting the procedure. And as always perform a mksysb to back up rootvg before you proceed.

needcoffee