duplicate HD

Tosu · Sep 10, 2015

is it possible to duplicate HD pabx hipath4K like clone..?

sbcsu · Sep 10, 2015

Possible depending on the version & type of Hard Disk and the program used, however for my customers I would prefer one made from scratch due to updates that would be necessary.
You can copy automatically and manually areas of the hard drive to magneto optical and compact flash disks and previously on dat tapes.

donb01 · Sep 10, 2015

My 4K V7 Duplex is really slick because it has 2 processor boards, each with its own hard drive that is mirrored to the other, and then a 3rd hard drive tray that I can put another identical drive in and make a clone of the system to it as a recovery disk that I can store offsite in case of catastrophic failure. The initial sync takes about 3 hours, and then the final step to set it up as a recovery disk takes about 20 minutes. I really love the paranoia factor in V7. I have a mirrored duplex system with 2 drives, I can create a 3rd drive, which I rotate every other month, I can make a complete backup to an ftp server, and my 6 remote sites each have their own APE processor board that also has a copy of the system database, and if the remote site loses sight of the mothership that processor will take over and keep that site running. That site would be an island, but I set it up so each site has its own independant trunks and customer calls keep flowing; the internal callers can dial the outside DID numbers.

Don Bruechert, Voice Comm Analyst II
CareTech Solutions @ Holy Family Memorial
Manitowoc, WI, USA

keyset6 · Sep 16, 2015

Nice, they've sure come a long way since the old systems I have! If you can find a DAT drive, they're quite expensive. When you do a backup to your ftp server - would that be to create another hard drive or could you somehow restore the system's RMX directly from the ftp server? Probably not as the A1 server would not yet have ip addresses configured - don't know if the admin processor is still even referred to A1. In another post with a system load trouble though, a lot of the text looks familiar, such as:

*** S Y S L O A D S T A R T E D (VARIANT FEATURE-LEVEL: G1) ***
RESTART REASON = POWER ON
LOAD ALL REQUESTED TO SYSLOAD
SET RESTART COUNTER TO 1
SEND END OF STARTUP MESSAGE (ESUM)
SWITCH DESCRIPTOR TABLE
BUILD CHECKSUM BY SYSLOAD REQUESTED FOR

DS:APSZ/ISU/LFD

DS:APSZ/ISU/SL .......(from one of my old ones)

I've restored RMX only on HDs that have the 'newer' version of Unix with Direct Amo (we're talking 9006.3!) by continually intervening into the script, skipping commands that load files already there, ACT-DSKX where the HD should be active but it's not, etc. I wish I had the .was version of the recovery scripts from Procomm so I could modify them. I don't think I have a good DAT with last version of Unix for 9006.3 with direct AMO, fortunately root still worked on one I have now without Direct Amo.

How reliable are the MO drives and disks ? I'm not familiar at all with those, is it like CD-RW technology?

donb01 · Sep 16, 2015

I don't know about the MO drives - they are long gone. I believe the switch to CompactFlash media happened either during or coincided with the release of V5, so when I got my first one of the 4K it already had the CF. Unfortunately that technology has already moved on as well. The drive is set up to use 2GB CompactFlash cards and it was picky about which ones it liked - all 2GB cards are not created equal. I had good luck with the ones I was buying but I don't recall the brand - something generic. Rumor has it you can use 4GB ones if you can't find 2, but the system will forward them as 2GB. I thought that method was actually pretty reliable, but will admit I never tried to restore from one, which would be the ultimate test!

Now the whole system runs on 2.5" hard drives, and it is possible to create recovery disks. In theory if the system is destroyed or the primary drive fails you can just drop in the clone (or use it in the replacement system) and you will be fully operational as of the date the system was created. The process to clone a drive is not hard, but it can take hours if you have a big system. I have done it on a duplex system in 4K V7, which has 2 complete switching units and a tray for a 3rd hard drive. You can drop an identical drive in that tray, clone the system on it and make it bootable, then remove it and put it in a safe place away from the PBX. It is important to note you need to have an IDENTICAL drive - make, model, part number, etc. Unify won't support any drive you didn't get from them by the way

As for the tape drives in 9006, a secret I was told after I replaced my 3rd or 4th one out of 7 is to clean the pi$$ out of them. If youhare having problems don't be afraid to run that head cleaner through 5 or 6 times. That has fixed a few of them for me long enough to do what I needed to do or longer. Try to use newer tapes and don't write over them too much. Normally all the ProComm scripts and keyboard mapping files you need are on a 3.5" floppy called the 9006 system utility disk if I remember correctly.On the mod 80 you can shut down the ADM and change the drive without affecting call processing, but the 30's are a different bird. Some of the earlier hard drives would not spin up once shut down unless you restarted the whole system. Later ones you could take the replacement drive and build it on another system that has the same processor (if you have a spare cabinet lying around like I did. Then take the drive back to the original site and put it back in and it should power up and go back online. You should build with the same release and patch package if possible, although I usually cheated and used a newer patch package of the same version. I cannot remember if the Quantum fireball was the drive to look out for, or that was the good one, but it was part of the equation.

Hope that's a bit clearer than mud!

Don Bruechert, Voice Comm Analyst II
CareTech Solutions @ Holy Family Memorial
Manitowoc, WI, USA

keyset6 · Sep 25, 2015

Yes with the Mod 30 when I've replaced DAT drives I've usually ended up restarting the system after ACT-DSKX... With the spare cabinet I've built several hard drives for system's drives that were starting to make noise, brought them to the site and loaded from the replacement. I probably could have done an EXE-UPDAT:BP,ALL to get the exact 100% up do date SWU on the replacement drive since the replacement were built with the same kind of processor. I did in fact do that with the spare cabinet and another spare hard drive.

Only one - the one I have not yet needed to replace, is where I had trouble restoring a spare HD from the DAT backup. It doesn't really need it yet but wanted to make a spare HD anyway. Each time the system restarted during the RMX recovery. Tried a different (same model #) processor, different HD. Some kind of write error if I recall.

I can't believe I actually found this - the text from the RMX port when the recovery bombed out:

SUBSYSTEM NAME FROM OMF <NMTEXTE0.A0-EG0.10.011>
SUBSYSTEM NAME FROM DIR <NREST@E0.A0-EG0.10.035> DIFFERENT TO
SUBSYSTEM NAME FROM OMF <NPFHSMC0.A0-EG0.10.014>
SUBSYSTEM NAME FROM DIR <NSDTF@D0.A0-EG0.10.011> DIFFERENT TO
SUBSYSTEM NAME FROM OMF <NSAVCOE0.A0-EG0.10.050>
SUBSYSTEM NAME FROM DIR <NSONUSD0.A0-EG0.10.011> DIFFERENT TO
SUBSYSTEM NAME FROM OMF <NSCTX@D0.A0-EG0.10.015>
FILE <

DS:APSU/HELPVD0> DELETED FOR SUBSEQUENT UPGRADE
FILE <

DS:APSU/HELPVE0> DELETED FOR SUBSEQUENT UPGRADE
FILE <

DS:APSU/RS@@@DD> DELETED FOR SUBSEQUENT UPGRADE
FILE <

DS:APSU/RS@@@DT> DELETED FOR SUBSEQUENT UPGRADE
FILE <

DS:APSU/RS@@@DV> DELETED FOR SUBSEQUENT UPGRADE
FILE <

DS:APSU/RS@@@ED> DELETED FOR SUBSEQUENT UPGRADE
FILE <

DS:APSU/RS@@@ET> DELETED FOR SUBSEQUENT UPGRADE
FILE <

DS:APSU/RS@@@EV> DELETED FOR SUBSEQUENT UPGRADE
FILE <

DS:APSU/RSMP@ED> DELETED FOR SUBSEQUENT UPGRADE
FILE <

DS:APSU/VALIS00> DELETED FOR SUBSEQUENT UPGRADE
FILE <

DS:APSU/VALSM00> DELETED FOR SUBSEQUENT UPGRADE
ERROR ON GET <