savevg restore order

[KenCunningham]

Hi. Just on the offchance - is there anyway to carry out a savevg so that the files most often restored are saved near the 'front' of the tape so that they can be restored quicker than otherwise might be the case - for example in the refresh of a test system? TIA.

 

[KenCunningham]

Hmm. Thought not. I think I'll use the backup command sequentially to order my saves. Cheers.

 

[RodKnowlton]

It can be done, but it involves manipulating the vgdata file.

I wrote a perl script once to do this based on an external file of regular expressions. I'll track it down if you like, but be aware that this technique requires that you no longer allow savevg to generate a new vgdata file each time it's run. The consequences of this are:

a.) new filesystems or modifications to existing ones won't be reflected in the savevg unless you create a new manipulated vgdata

b.) the longer you go without generating a new vgdata, the less likely that you'll be able to use the "shrink" option in the event of a restvg. Assuming that, like most filesystems, yours are slowing running out of free space.

Rod Knowlton
IBM Certified Advanced Technical Expert pSeries and AIX 5L

 

[KenCunningham]

Rod - many thanks for your response. If you can track your script down I'd be grateful if you could email me a copy to kencunningham1957@yahoo.co.uk

I take your point about the drawbacks and will take these into account in any decision on this issue. Thanks again.