AIX

Every 3 months we have to do backups (smitth mksysb/lsmksysb + tar) on at least 30 workstations. We have to carry around 2 external tape drives to connect to them. It is a pain to do because it takes at least 3 days to do (evening/night shift) and users sometimes complain that there desk is not put back to the same exact same way they were (some have so much junk that it is impossible to do it without moving anything).

So is there a way to remotly connect to a server but do the mksysb/tar on a remote tape drive ?

I mean :
login to Server-A
rlogin to workstation-A
do the mksysb/tar of workstation-A on drive of Server-A

If this was possible, we could do 10 backups at the same time, not have to carry those external drives around and not mess with anybody's desk.

This would be great if we could do it.

Is it possible on an AIX 4.2 and how ?

The AIX level is very old so I cannot find any documentation but I think NIM is probably the way to go.

I found an old AIX 4.3 NIM redbook:

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg245524.pdf

You should be able to take, and if needs be deploy, mksysbs over the network to, and from, a NIM server.

Or you could set up an nfs server, mount a remote directory on the workstation from the nfs server and then take the mksysb to a file rather than a tape.

Checkout the mksysb man page or command reference.

HTH