MKSYSB On Server With No DVD Drive

[sunking68]

Hello all!
I have a Disaster Recovery test coming up and have need to
recover 3 AIX servers. They are all running AIX 5.3ML02. The
servers in my data center will be recovered to standalone p550
and p570 servers at the recovery center.

One of the servers is a p550 running in full system mode with a
DVD burner. We create a MKSYSB on this server on a daily basis
as it is our TSM server using the MKCD command.

The other two servers are smaller partitions that are on a p550Q
that do not have a DVD burner installed.

My question: How can I create a bootable MKSYSB on the two
servers that do not have an installed DVD drive?

I think what I need to do is create the MKSYSB to an image on the
server without the DVD drive and then move the image to the
server with the DVD drive and then burn that image to the DVD.
Is this correct? Can anyone help me with the commands that I
would have to run to perform this?

Also, I understand there are some differences that I now need to
be aware of regarding ISO and UDF formats.

Thank you all in advance for your help!

Sunking

 

[p5wizard]

You can mksysb to a file destination. Then you need to copy the mksysb image over to the dvd-burner server.
Then you can run mkcd to burn the mksysb image to a DVD disk.

See man pages for mkcd and mksysb (I don't know the mksysb/mkcd flags by heart).

I do think it is best to have all servers on the same oslevel in order to successfully cross-burn the mksysb images.



HTH,

p5wizard

 

[mrn]

Stolen from

http://www.pseriestech.org/forum/tutorials/how-write-bootable-mksysb-30.html

Did you know you can burn a bootable mksysb image from your CDRW/DVDRW capable PC or laptop when the server/LPAR doesn't have one available? Here's how:

1. Log in to the server as the root user.
2. Run the smitty mkcd command.
3. Select No from the Use an existing mksysb image menu. 4. Selecting No allows you to create a new system backup that reflects your current running environment.
5. Select the options that are appropriate to your environment from the Back Up This System to CD menu. You can also leave the default options as they are.
6. Select Yes for the Do you want the CD to be bootable option.
7. Select No for the Remove final images after creating CD option.
8. Select No for the Create the CD now option.

Press Enter to begin the system backup creation when you finish making selections. When the operation completes successfully, there is a file or files located in the /mkcd/cd_images directory.
9. FTP (binary mode) the ISO backup image to your PC or laptop.
10. Create a bootable CD from the ISO backup image using your CD-burning software

Now you have a bootable CD or DVD created from your PC. its just that easy.    

One thing to note, you may need to change the file extension to be .iso prior to burning the image on to CD.

The only problem to deal with now... How do you use it in the event of a DR if you don't have a DVD or CD

Mike

"Whenever I dwell for any length of time on my own shortcomings, they gradually begin to seem mild, harmless, rather engaging little things, not at all like the staring defects in other people's characters."