IBM offers another solution for bare-metal recovery on AIX 3.2.x and 4.x systems called Sysback/6000 , usually referred to as Sysback. This product is not included with the AIX operating system and must be purchased separately from IBM. Contact your IBM sales representative for more information on the Sysback solution.
This section presents a short overview of Sysback. Anyone serious about using Sysback should read the AIX System Backup and Recovery/6000 User and Reference Manual, published by IBM.
Sysback is a series of scripts written by IBM that complement a good disaster recovery plan. Among other things, Sysback allows:
Sysback has the following prerequisites:
The AIX Base Operating System (BOS). Make sure that the version of Sysback that you buy is compatible with your OS level.
The bos.sysmgt.sysbr
fileset.
The bos.rte.net
and
bos.net.tcp.client
are required for the remote
services functions.
The bos.net.nfs.client
is required to perform
network boots and installations.
The bos.rte.bosinst
,
bos.rte.archive
, and
bos.rte.libnetsvc
are installed by default with
the AIX distribution and must not be removed if Sysback
is to function properly.
Once all the prerequisite software has been installed, log in as root and install the Sysback software using installp :
# installp -acgNqX -d /dev/cd0 all
AIX 4.2 users also can use the smit install_latest fast path.
Select the appropriate device for the source media:
/dev/cd0
To install from a CD-ROM
/dev/fd0
To install from a diskette
/some_directory
If the installation files were copied to a filesystem
To access the Sysback menu with SMIT, type:
# smit sysback
This menu contains the main Sysback options. The specifics of these menus vary, depending on the operating system level installed and the version of Sysback available.
Lists further options for backing up, restoring, listing, or verifying information for various types of backups
Gives the user access to various configuration options for local access, remote services, etc.
Allows for further configuration of tape devices
Lists extra utilities (create boot tape, display configuration, etc.)
There are several options available within the Sysback menus.
To perform a backup of your system, run the following command:
# smit sysback
Then choose:
Backup & Recovery Options
Then choose:
Backup Options
The backup menu then presents the following options:
Makes a bootable image of the entire system. Includes the rootvg and any other VGs desired.
Backs up a specific LV. Use only for raw partitions; regular JFS filesystems and LVs should be backed up with the previous option.
Backs up a specific file or a specific directory on the system.
If you want to make a full dump of the system, choose:
Backup the System (Installation Image)
Sysback then asks if any VG, besides rootvg, should be backed up. The rootvg is backed up by default, so entering None at this point would mean backing up only the rootvg.
Once you have selected what to back up, Sysback asks where the image should be stored. If there are tape drives available, it displays a list of those tape drives:
Tape /dev/rmt0 5.0 GB 8mm Tape Drive Dir /usr/lpp/sysback/images/local server1 /dev/rmt0 5.0 GB 8mm Tape Drive server1 /usr/lpp/sysback/images/all
If a machine has no local tape drive and no remote hosts are defined, only the local file option is offered:
Dir /usr/lpp/sysback/images/local
When backing up to a file (local or remote), the filename for each backup follows this format:
/usr/lpp/sysback/images/[all|local]/type
.hostname
.uniqueID
.extension
The variables in the preceding string are described here:
type
Represents the type of backup:
System Backup
Volume Group
Logical Volume
Filesystem
File or Directory
hostname
uniqueID
Unique identification number for the image. By default, Sysback uses the date and time of the backup (MMDDhhmm). Take note the default string does not contain any year digit, which could be a problem for a long-term disaster recovery plan. You can define the unique ID as you please, but I strongly recommend following some sort of recipe to generate them. It makes finding the right image file that much easier when recovery time comes.
extension
This is an extension automatically added by Sysback on each file. Each system backup could contain more than one file. These files will be differentiated by their extensions:
Table of contents
The hd1
logical volume
The hd9var
logical volume
Once the destination of the backup is decided, you will be presented with various backup options:
Do not modify this option. When a network backup is chosen, the name of the remote host will appear here.
Name of the device where the backup will be saved
(i.e., /dev/rmt0
).
This option appears only when a backup to a file was chosen. You should never modify this value since the target directory has been decided previously.
A power backup backs up all filesystems
as raw partitions. Power backups normally give better backup and
restore performance but have less flexibility. When this option is
turned on, it is impossible to restore single files. Only restores on
complete filesystems (other than /
,
/usr
, and /var
) will be
available. It won’t be possible to restore
/
, /var
, and
/usr
since restores of raw partitions require
the LVs to be inactive, and those three are always active. Since all
filesystems are backed up as raw LVs, the entire LV is backed up even
if only a quarter of the filesystem is used. Although the resulting
backup may contain more raw data than a non-power backup, backing up
and recovering data using this feature usually is faster. When the
power-backup option is turned on, it is impossible to change any
filesystem attributes, logical volume name, logical volume size, or
the volume group for a specific LV.
You can input the name of the file used for the backup. This option is available only for backups to files and not to tapes or diskettes.
Decide what kind of output is desired: progress indicator, file list, or errors only.
Choose the kernel type of the boot image on the tape:
Common Hardware Reference Platform
Multiprocessor chrp
System/6000
Multiprocessor rs6k
PCI-based RISC System/6000
Multiprocessor rs6k
(AIX 4.2 users can use the bootinfo -T command to see what kernel type the machine booted with.)
Choose the network type of the adapter that will be used to access the remote host in the event of a Network Install:
Ethernet interface
Tokenring interface
FDDI interface
Choose whether to include nonjournaled (non-JFS or raw) filesystems in the backup.
This option appears only in the event of a backup to a tape device; it prevents the tape from being rewound before the backup is started. This option is useful mainly when more than one backup image is stored on the same tape.
Compressing usually reduces by 25-40 percent the amount of space required for the backup. The compression also will be a lot more intensive on the CPU. Compression defaults to No for tapes and to Yes for images on file.
This can be used to add a short description of the backup, which can be up to 60 characters long. The description will appear when the content of a backup is listed. This option can be used to keep track of certain special backup images; here is an example:
Description:"
Backup of system1 before the upgrade to AIX 4.3"
.
This option applies only to backups of files. It sets the host permissions for the image file. This option lists the hosts that will have read access to the backup file; this may be a list of hostnames or specific keywords like “all.”
This option applies only to backups of files. It sets the user permissions for the image file. This option lists the users who will have read access to the backup file; this may be a list of usernames or specific keywords like “all.”
This represents the amount of data written to the output in a single I/O operation. This option will vary depending on the backup media. When writing to the media, the data first is buffered and then written out in “chunks.” This option allows you to specify the size of the chunks used.
A volume re-created with the option set to Yes is recreated on the same physical partition as the original volume. Note that saying Yes to this option also will preserve fragmentation that develops on logical volumes as they are incrementally expanded during normal use.
This permits you to specify the
device name where the volume prompt (tape change) message will be
sent instead of the current smit screen (i.e.,
/dev/tty0
, /dev/lft0
or
/dev/pts/5
).
To list the extra VGs to be backed up. If you decided on earlier screens to back up nonroot VGs, you are now asked to select which ones to back up.
In addition to all those options, pre- and postbackup scripts can be added to the system. Sysback will automatically use:
As a preinstall script
As a postinstall script
These scripts are stored on the tape image and run at restore time. Here is one example:
Removes all network configuration and host ID.
Two functions are provided with Sysback to verify or list the content of a backup. Use:
# smit sb_verify
Select the appropriate device as well as the data to be verified. Sysback will run an integrity test on the data. You also can use:
# smit sb_list
Select the appropriate device to list the full content of a backup tape or file.
Sysback offers two options when it comes to restoring data:
Allows you to recreate any VGs, LVs, or filesystems in the event of a hardware failure. Recreating these “containers” allows you to restore the data in them later.
Allows you to restore actual data contained on a Sysback backup file or tape.
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