mkcd / mkdvd

[marco17]

I'm trying to backup rootvg on a bootable DVD for systems whitout tape drive.
It doesn't works very well...
Below you will see outputs from smitty mkdvd and smitty mkcd.

I'm in AIX 5.3 ML5 .
cdrecord is in version 1.9.
i'm using maxwell 4,7gb single sided re-recordable DVD-RW.

Any tips welcomes.
Perhaps someone knows how to make a mksysb image bootable, burning a DVD from my PC ?


mkdvd in UDF format ends like that

0512-038 mksysb: Backup Completed Successfully.
mount: No such device or address
0512-300 mkcd: Error in routine: create_cd_fs.
Cleaning up...
Removing temporary file system: /mkcd/mksysb_image...
umount: 0506-347 Cannot find anything to unmount.

mkdvd in ISO format ends like that

Capacity: 1 Blocks = 2 kBytes = 0 MBytes = 0 prMB
Sectorsize: 2048 Bytes
Copy from file '/mkcd/cd_images/cd_image_2928674' to SCSI (0,0,0) disk
end: 1
addr: 0 cnt: 1 /usr/bin/readcd: Invalid argument. Cannot send SCSI cmd via ioctl

0512-332 burn_cd: Device /dev/cd0 does not appear to be ready. For
information about possible causes, see /usr/lpp/bos.sysmgt/mkcd.README.txt
Continuing...

burn_cd: Command error.

and finally mkcd ends like that :

Cdrecord 1.9 (rs6000-ibm-aix) Copyright (C) 1995-2000 Jörg Schilling
scsidev: '0,0'
scsibus: 0 target: 0 lun: 0
Using libscg version 'schily-0.1'
Device type : Removable CD-ROM
Version : 2
Response Format: 2
Capabilities : WBUS16 SYNC
Vendor_info : 'IBM '
Identifikation : 'RMBO0020551 '
Revision : '1.72'
Device seems to be: Generic mmc2 DVD.
Using generic SCSI-3/mmc CD-R driver (mmc_cdr).
Driver flags : SWABAUDIO

/usr/bin/cdrecord: Invalid argument. Cannot send SCSI cmd via ioctl

0512-332 burn_cd: Device /dev/cd0 does not appear to be ready. For
information about possible causes, see /usr/lpp/bos.sysmgt/mkcd.README.txt
Continuing...

Bye.

 

[p5wizard]

It looks like you are using a slimline DVD-multi recorder...

The only way to go on the AIX machine itself is to create an UDFS mksysb DVD on DVD-RAM media.
[tt]mkdvd -u -d /dev/cd0[/tt]
I believe. See man page for mkdvd.

Another solution is to create an ISO file containing your mksysb image, copy that ISO file to your PC and burn that ISO image (e.g. using Nero) on a DVD-R blank disk. I don't think DVD-RW or DVD+R and DVD+RW media is recognized by the AIX boot loader.

I'd also search this forum for more detailed info, it's been touched before.


HTH,

p5wizard

 

[marco17]

Thanks for this answer.
I will try with the media you said and tell you if it's ok.

 

[jcshepp]

We use mkdvd to backup one of our p520 servers running AIX 5.3. (The system has no tape deck)

I tried various types of disks and discovered that only DVD-RAM disks work okay.

 

[DukeSSD]

AIX only "supports" dvd-ram and even then it can be fussy about the brand.

 

[p5wizard]

DVD-RAM disks from IBM (which I believe are OEMd from Maxell), Maxell and TDK seem to work fine for me. Other vendor's disks have proven unreliable in a p5 slimline DVD-RAM drive.

Note: that drive may say DVD-multi-recorder on the front but that is not how AIX sees it ;-).


HTH,

p5wizard

 

[DukeSSD]

I agree p5wizard, they seem to be the same part as used in laptops and I have seen one with DVD-RAM / CD-RW on it as supplied by IBM but just because the drive may support CD-RW does not mean that AIX does.

 

[jcshepp]

Marco17

We use Panasonic DVD-RAM disks.

The command we use for our backup is mkdvd -d /dev/cd0 -U

Something to watch out for is the amount of free disk space on your system. mkdvd creates filesystems on disk which is writes the data to before burning to the dvd-ram disk. If you don't leave enough space then the backup will fail.