AIX 7.2 MKSYSB Backup and Restore Best Practices? Post: 303033848

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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

04-12-2019

Registered User

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.

c3rb3rus

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LEARN ABOUT DEBIAN

bdb.db0

BDB.DB0(5)							AFS File Reference							BDB.DB0(5)

NAME

       bdb.DB0, bdb.DBSYS1 - Contain the Backup Database and associated log

DESCRIPTION

       The bdb.DB0 file contains the Backup Database, which records configuration information used by the AFS Backup System along with cross-
       indexed records of the tapes created and volumes dumped using the Backup System commands.

       The bdb.DBSYS1 file is a log file in which the Backup Server (buserver process) logs each database operation before performing it. When an
       operation is interrupted, the Backup Server replays the log to complete the operation.

       Both files are in binary format and reside in the /var/lib/openafs/db directory on each database server machine that runs the Backup
       Server.	When the Backup Server starts or restarts on a given machine, it establishes a connection with its peers and verifies that its
       copy of the bdb.DB0 file matches the copy on the other database server machines. If not, the Backup Servers use AFS's distributed database
       technology, Ubik, to distribute to all of the machines the copy of the database with the highest version number.

       Use the commands in the backup suite to administer the Backup Database. It is advisable to create a backup copy of the bdb.DB0 file on tape
       on a regular basis, using the UNIX tar command or another local disk backup utility.

SEE ALSO

       backup(8), backup_savedb(8), buserver(8)

COPYRIGHT

       IBM Corporation 2000. <http://www.ibm.com/> All Rights Reserved.

       This documentation is covered by the IBM Public License Version 1.0.  It was converted from HTML to POD by software written by Chas
       Williams and Russ Allbery, based on work by Alf Wachsmann and Elizabeth Cassell.

OpenAFS 							    2012-03-26								BDB.DB0(5)

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