VIO Backup using NIM Server

[TSch]

Hi everybody,

we're using a NIM Master to mksysb all our LPAR's.

Now we'd also like to perform a backupios of all our VIO servers also using NIM Master ..

Is this possible ?
How can we initiate a backupios after installing NIM Client Software on the VIO server and registering the VIO on the NIM Master ?

Is this possible or is there some kind of NIM VIO Master we have to setup first ?

Regards
Thomas

 

[mrn]

A quick google (first hit) found.

The backup of VIO server is pretty straight forward as it is mentioned inthe redbook(advanced power virtualization)

1)Export a directory from a NIM / NFS server where you want to save the vio-bkp

2)On vio server, mount the exported filesystem onto a local directory

3)issue a backupios command ( you have 2 options here )
a)backupios -file "/the directory name" --this creates a nim_resources.tar file which contains the mksysb and the spot ,
b)backupios -file "/the directory name" -mksysb ---this creates only the mksysb file.

---------------
The above can be done fairly easily manually and can be incorporated into a script to be run in cron on VIO server to automate the process ....BUT this method is not supported by IBM...and I dont know why !!! ...maybe this will be incorporated inthe next versions of the VIO
---------------

The supported method is

1)setup ssh between a nfs/nim server and the HMC to operate without password. This way, from a AIX command line you can run VIO commands.

2)Here is a example
hmc2clx is the HMC console
nim1crs is the NIM/nfs server
server-** is the p5 server/managed system
agp001-I/O Server -- is the VIO server

from the nim server ,which is a 5.3 tl4 box, i issue the following commands

# ssh hmc2clx -l hscroot 'viosvrcmd -m Server-** -p agp001-I/O
Server -c "mount nim1crs:/rmt_mksysb /home/padmin/backup_loc"'

# ssh hmc2clx -l hscroot 'viosvrcmd -m Server-** -p agp001-I/O
Server -c "backupios -file /home/padmin/backup_loc/agp001"'



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."

 

[hfaix]

Call me risky....but I do it the same way I backup my AIX partitions. A mksysb to file (same script on every server AIX or VIOS). I've used them many times, with no problems. Scheduled with a cron job (root's cron).

It's not the "supported" approach, but IBM didn't come out with a supported approach until about 18 months after releasing the VIOS....which put me in a bind considering I jumped on the virtualization bandwagon quickly.

I've been doing it this way for about 3 years now....no problems. I use a AIX 5.3 Spot for my VIOS.

 

[TSch]

Thanks for the quick responses !

The backupios works perfectly.

But now we'd like to use a little script to initiate the backup from the NIM Master.

Basically the script is supposed to do something like this:

ssh -l padmin host "backupios -file /home/padmin/backup_loc"

Problem is that he can't find the backupios command. I assume this is because for some reason the .profile isn't being executed.

However, if we first login and then enter the command manually like this

ssh -l padmin host <Enter>
backupios -file /home/padmin/backup_loc

everything's fine ...

How can we solve this problem ?

Regards
Thomas

 

[mrn]

Why not just do it from cron?



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."

 

[hfaix]

Try....

/usr/ios/cli/ioscli backupios

 

[TSch]

@mrn: Problem is that we have quite a lot VIO server in our environment and using crontab would increase the administration work significantly.

@hfaix: Almost ... Using this command the backup started, but during the process it came up with a lot of access permission errors. Guess there's no way around the .profile

Regards
Thomas

 

[mrn]

Lots of VIO's! All the same? use rsync to align your crontabs!

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."