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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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re-preinstall(1M)					  System Administration Commands					 re-preinstall(1M)

NAME
re-preinstall - installs the JumpStart software on a system SYNOPSIS
cdrom-mnt-pt/Solaris_XX/Tools/Boot/usr/sbin/install.d/re-preinstall [-m Solaris_boot_dir] [-k platform_name] target-slice DESCRIPTION
re-preinstall installs the JumpStart software (preinstall boot image) on a system, so you can power-on the system and have it automatically install the Solaris software (perform a JumpStart installation on the system). When you turn on a re-preinstalled system, the system looks for the JumpStart software on the system's default boot disk. All new SPARC systems have the JumpStart software already preinstalled. The XX in Solaris_XX is the version number of the Solaris release being used. You can use the re-preinstall command in several ways. The most common way is to run re-preinstall on a system to install the JumpStart software on its own default boot disk. This is useful if you want to restore a system to its original factory conditions. (See the first procedure described in EXAMPLES.) You can also run re-preinstall on a system to install JumpStart software on any attached disk (non-boot disk). After you install the Jump- Start software on a disk, you can move the disk to a different system and perform a JumpStart installation on the different system. (See the second procedure described in EXAMPLES.) re-preinstall creates a standard file system on the specified target-slice (usually slice 0), and re-preinstall makes sure there is enough space on the target-slice for the JumpStart software. If sufficient space is not available, re-preinstall fails with the following message: re-preinstall: target-slice too small xx Megabytes required You can use the format(1M) command to create sufficient space on the target-slice for the JumpStart software. OPTIONS
The following options are supported: -k platform_name Platform name of the system that will use the disk with the JumpStart software. The default is the platform name of the system running re-preinstall. (Use the uname(1) command (-i option) to determine a system's platform name.) -m Solaris_boot_dir Absolute path to the Solaris_XX/Tools/Boot subdirectory of a mounted Solaris CD or a Solaris CD copied to disk that re-preinstall uses to install the JumpStart software. The default is root (/), which is where the Solaris CD is mounted in single-user mode. OPERANDS
The following operands are supported: target-slice Device name of the disk slice where the JumpStart software will be installed (usually slice 0), for example, c0t3d0s0. EXAMPLES
Example 1: Installing the JumpStart Software on a System's Own Default Boot Disk The following procedure installs the JumpStart software on a system's own default boot disk: 1. From the ok prompt, boot the system from the Solaris media CD or DVD in single-user mode: ok boot cdrom -s 2. The following command installs the Jumpstart software on the System default boot disk, c0t0d0s0 on a Solaris 9 system: example# /usr/sbin/install.d/re-preinstall c0t0d0s1 3. Reboot the slice: example# reboot disk:b Example 2: Installing the JumpStart Software on a System's Attached (non-boot) Disk The following procedure installs the JumpStart software on a system's attached (non-boot) disk: 1. Mount the Solaris CD or DVD if vold(1M) is not running or CD or DVD is not mounted. 2. Use the format(1M) command to determine the target-slice where JumpStart will be installed. 3. Use the uname(1) command (-i option) to determine the platform name of the system that will use the re-preinstalled disk 4. Run re-preinstall with the -m Solaris_boot_dir option if the Solaris CD or DVD is not mounted on /cdrom. The following command installs the JumpStart software on the system's attached disk for a system with a Sun4u kernel architecture, and it uses the Solaris CD or DVD mounted with vold(1M) on a Solaris 9 system: example# /cdrom/cdrom/s1/usr/bin/install.d/re-preinstall -m /cdrom/cdrom/s1 -k sun4u c0t2d0s0 EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned: 0 Successful completion. 1 An error has occurred. ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes: +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Availability |SUNWcdrom (Solaris CD, | | |SPARC Platform Edition) | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ SEE ALSO
uname(1), eeprom(1M), format(1M), mount(1M), vold(1M), attributes(5) Solaris 10 Installation Guide: Basic Installations SunOS 5.10 9 Apr 2002 re-preinstall(1M)
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