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Operating Systems AIX AIX 7.2 MKSYSB Backup and Restore Best Practices? Post 303033848 by c3rb3rus on Friday 12th of April 2019 10:57:11 AM
Old 04-12-2019
AIX 7.2 MKSYSB Backup and Restore Best Practices?

Hello,

Running AIX 7.2 on Power9 bare-metal (no LPAR and no NIM server), in the process of creating a guide on MKSYSB process.

I understand that MKSYSB is a backup of the rootvg and we can exclude stuff via exclude.rootvg file, the rest of the data volumes are mapped to the system as LUNs via multi-path FC connection to a SAN and that is backed up separately. The rootvg does not boot off SAN, it has two internal NVMe disks.

In the event that rootvg is corrupt and we need to restore rootvg , the process would be to modify the bootlist and reboot into SMS via SSH/Console or using the ASMI service processor.

Are there any critical steps we need to do pre or post-rootvg restore?
  • Currently the rootvg is mirrored, once restored will it remain mirrored?
  • Will i need to mess with the bootlist at all?
  • Will the configuration of the external filesystems be preserved and mounted ready to use (if set to auto-mount at boot)?
  • Running a power system in 24x7 prodution after a MKSYSB restore is viable or should one plan for a fresh re-install of AIX from install media at some point?
  • Does one need access to AIX 7.2 install media at any point during a MKSYSB restore?

The Power9 system has a LTO tape library which is where I was going to write the MKSYSB backup to and boot off, there is no CD-ROM but there is USB - is it possible to boot MKSYSB off USB? Any cons or pros going with tape vs. USB? Most of the guides out there refer to a tape or dvd, though many of them were written years ago.

My plan is to learn from experience and create a MKSYSB via mksysb -iev /dev/rmt0, corrupt rootvg by rm -rf /etc, and reboot. I am pretty sure it will become very unhappy with a missing /etc - so proceed with another reboot (via FPO using Control Panel or ASMI) and boot to SMS for a MKSYSB restore.

Mainly looking for best practices / tips / suggestions around the process.
 

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RESTOR(1M)																RESTOR(1M)

NAME
restor - incremental file system restore SYNOPSIS
restor key [ argument ... ] DESCRIPTION
Restor is used to read magtapes dumped with the dump command. The key specifies what is to be done. Key is one of the characters rRxt optionally combined with f. f Use the first argument as the name of the tape instead of the default. r or R The tape is read and loaded into the file system specified in argument. This should not be done lightly (see below). If the key is R restor asks which tape of a multi volume set to start on. This allows restor to be interrupted and then restarted (an icheck -s must be done before restart). x Each file on the tape named by an argument is extracted. The file name has all `mount' prefixes removed; for example, /usr/bin/lpr is named /bin/lpr on the tape. The file extracted is placed in a file with a numeric name supplied by restor (actually the inode number). In order to keep the amount of tape read to a minimum, the following procedure is recommended: Mount volume 1 of the set of dump tapes. Type the restor command. Restor will announce whether or not it found the files, give the number it will name the file, and rewind the tape. It then asks you to `mount the desired tape volume'. Type the number of the volume you choose. On a multivolume dump the recom- mended procedure is to mount the last through the first volume in that order. Restor checks to see if any of the files requested are on the mounted tape (or a later tape, thus the reverse order) and doesn't read through the tape if no files are. If you are working with a single volume dump or the number of files being restored is large, respond to the query with `1' and restor will read the tapes in sequential order. If you have a hierarchy to restore you can use dumpdir(1) to produce the list of names and a shell script to move the resulting files to their homes. t Print the date the tape was written and the date the filesystem was dumped from. The r option should only be used to restore a complete dump tape onto a clear file system or to restore an incremental dump tape onto this. Thus /etc/mkfs /dev/rp0 40600 restor r /dev/rp0 is a typical sequence to restore a complete dump. Another restor can be done to get an incremental dump in on top of this. A dump followed by a mkfs and a restor is used to change the size of a file system. FILES
default tape unit varies with installation rst* SEE ALSO
dump(1), mkfs(1), dumpdir(1) DIAGNOSTICS
There are various diagnostics involved with reading the tape and writing the disk. There are also diagnostics if the i-list or the free list of the file system is not large enough to hold the dump. If the dump extends over more than one tape, it may ask you to change tapes. Reply with a new-line when the next tape has been mounted. BUGS
There is redundant information on the tape that could be used in case of tape reading problems. Unfortunately, restor doesn't use it. RESTOR(1M)
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