IBM’s Sysback/6000 Utility

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.

Features

Sysback is a series of scripts written by IBM that complement a good disaster recovery plan. Among other things, Sysback allows:

  • Backups and restores of various types (full system dumps, volume groups, filesystems, logical volumes, or specific files and directories)

  • Backups and restores to a remote host configured as a Sysback server

  • Complete set of smit menus and fast paths to configure and perform backups

Installing Sysback

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

Overview of Sysback Menu Options

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.

Backup & Recovery Options

Lists further options for backing up, restoring, listing, or verifying information for various types of backups

Configuration Options

Gives the user access to various configuration options for local access, remote services, etc.

Tape Drives

Allows for further configuration of tape devices

Utilities

Lists extra utilities (create boot tape, display configuration, etc.)

Backing Up Your System

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:

Backup the System (Installation Image)

Makes a bootable image of the entire system. Includes the rootvg and any other VGs desired.

Backup Volume Groups

Makes a backup of a specific VG.

Backup Filesystems

Backs up a specific JFS filesystem.

Backup Logical Volumes

Backs up a specific LV. Use only for raw partitions; regular JFS filesystems and LVs should be backed up with the previous option.

Backup Files or Directories

Backs up a specific file or a specific directory on the system.

Choosing the backup type

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

Backing up to a file

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:

SB

System Backup

VG

Volume Group

LV

Logical Volume

FS

Filesystem

FD

File or Directory

hostname

The normal hostname of the system being backed up.

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:

TOC

Table of contents

hd1

The hd1 logical volume

hd9var

The hd9var logical volume

Deciding on other backup options

Once the destination of the backup is decided, you will be presented with various backup options:

Hostname of Server

Do not modify this option. When a network backup is chosen, the name of the remote host will appear here.

Device Name

Name of the device where the backup will be saved (i.e., /dev/rmt0 ).

Images Directory

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.

Create a Power Backup? (Yes/No)

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.

Backup File ID

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.

Report Output Type

Decide what kind of output is desired: progress indicator, file list, or errors only.

Platform/Kernel Type for Tape Boot Image

Choose the kernel type of the boot image on the tape:

chrp

Common Hardware Reference Platform

chrp/MP

Multiprocessor chrp

rs6k RISC

System/6000

rs6k/MP

Multiprocessor rs6k

rspc

PCI-based RISC System/6000

rspc/MP

Multiprocessor rs6k

(AIX 4.2 users can use the bootinfo -T command to see what kernel type the machine booted with.)

Network Install Support to Include

Choose the network type of the adapter that will be used to access the remote host in the event of a Network Install:

ent

Ethernet interface

tok

Tokenring interface

fddi

FDDI interface

Include Non-JFS Logical Volumes? (Yes/No)

Choose whether to include nonjournaled (non-JFS or raw) filesystems in the backup.

Rewind Tape Before Starting Backup? (Yes/No)

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.

Compress Data Before Writing to Media? (Yes/No)

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.

User Description

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".
Host Read Permission

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.”

User Read Permission

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.”

Buffer Size (in Kbytes)

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.

Preserve Physical Partition Mapping? (Yes/No)

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.

Device Name for Remote Volume Prompt

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 ).

Non-rootvg Volume Groups to Include

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:

/usr/lpp/sysback/scripts/install.pre

As a preinstall script

/usr/lpp/sysback/scripts/install.post

As a postinstall script

These scripts are stored on the tape image and run at restore time. Here is one example:

/usr/lpp/sysback/scripts/install.post_rmnet

Removes all network configuration and host ID.

Verifying and Listing Backup Content

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.

Restoring Data

Sysback offers two options when it comes to restoring data:

Recreate Volume Groups, Logical Volumes & Filesystems

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.

Restore Data from a Backup

Allows you to restore actual data contained on a Sysback backup file or tape.

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