mksysb on REMOTE TAPE drive??

[nandkumar4aix]

hi
i have two node sp frame with a control workstation running aix 4.3.2 on it.

my sp nodes doesnt have any tape drives so i need some solution to take the system image backup (mksysb) of the sp nodes.
is it possible to take the mksysb on the remote tape drive??

or is there any way to take the system backup on the control workstation or on some other system??

all ideas , suggetions r welcome.
thanks
regards
nandkumar

aix sys admin
***************
nandkumarg@visto.com

 

[bjverzal]

This thread is kinda old. Has your question been answered ? If not, just create a few large-file enabled filesystems on the CWS and perform the mksysb to the CWS. This is the recommended practive from IBM and is what we do.

Bill.

 

[bomberman]

PROBLEM: Creating the mksysb tape from the mksysb image.

ACTION TAKEN:
**************************************************
This is not supported and is delivered as is no
support will be given on this
**************************************************

Customer Knows that this is a unsupported procedure!

Customer has a mksysb image on his control workstation of
a node without a tape drive. He would like to place this
mksysb image onto a tape so that he can clone the system
on another non-sp environment system.

Action: I had the customer run the following:

on the node that the image is from:
# cd /
# mkszfile
# vi'd the bosinst.data file and and made sure PROMPT = yes
# echo 512 NONE >/tapeblksz
# mkinsttape /tmp/2nd.image

This will place all the system files required on the 2nd image of the
mksysb tape to a file.

Next we transfered the /tmp/2nd.image file to the control
workstationi and placed it into /tmp, then on the control workstation
we ran the following:

# chdev -l rmt0 -a block_size=512
# echo "Dummy Install Image" |dd of=/dev/rmt0 bs=512 conv=sync
# tctl rewind
# tctl -f /dev/rmt0.1 fsf 1
# dd if=/tmp/2nd.image of=/dev/rmt0 bs=512
# tctl rewind
# tctl -f /dev/rmt0.1 fsf 2
# echo "Dummy Install Image" |dd of=/dev/rmt0 bs=512 conv=sync
# tctl rewind
# tctl -f /dev/rmt0.1 fsf 3
# dd if=/backup/mksysb.image of=/dev/rmt0 bs=512

He will then boot off the install cd of the same os level of the
source node, then select to restore from a system backup.

 

[ariochian]

Here is a way I do it on each node.
create a /backup fs (large file enabled) large enough to hold your largest backup
then create a /nodebkups fs (large file enabled) on your control workstation

you can do something like this for vg backups.

rm /backup/*
/usr/bin/savevg -f'/backup/appvg.savevg' '-i' '-e' '-X' '-p' appvg
rcp -p /backup/* cws:/nodebkups/f1n1files

then on the cws i run this.
#APPVG
#SAVES FILES LOCATED IN "nodebkups"
#TO 8mm TAPE
x() {
ARGS=''
LOCAL=''
while getopts 'b:f:lps:v' OPTION; do
case $OPTION in
b) cd $OPTARG || exit $? ;;
f) DEVICE=$OPTARG ;;
l) LOCAL='-fstype jfs' ;;
p) ARGS=$ARGS' -p' ;;
s) SOURCE=$OPTARG ;;
v) ARGS=$ARGS' -v' ;;
esac
done
/usr/bin/find $SOURCE $LOCAL -print |
/usr/sbin/backup -iq -f $DEVICE $ARGS
}
x -f'/dev/rmt0' -s'/nodebkups/f1n1files/appvg.savevg' 'l' '-v'

for my mksysb on each node i do something like this.

rm /backup/*
mksysb '-e' '-i' '-X' '-p' /backup/bos.obj.f1n1
rcp -p /backup/bos.obj.f1n1 cws:/nodebkups/f1n1files

then on the cws i do this.
#MKSYSB
#SAVES FILES LOCATED IN "nodebkups"
#TO 8mm TAPE
x() {
ARGS=''
LOCAL=''
while getopts 'b:f:lps:v' OPTION; do
case $OPTION in
b) cd $OPTARG || exit $? ;;
f) DEVICE=$OPTARG ;;
l) LOCAL='-fstype jfs' ;;
p) ARGS=$ARGS' -p' ;;
s) SOURCE=$OPTARG ;;
v) ARGS=$ARGS' -v' ;;
esac
done
/usr/bin/find $SOURCE $LOCAL -print |
/usr/sbin/backup -iq -f $DEVICE $ARGS
}
x -f'/dev/rmt0' -s'/nodebkups/f1n1files/bos.obj.f1n1' '-l' '-v'