AIX

Hi,

I've recently implemented a NIM backup procedure for 2 virtual AIX5.3 environments running on a JS22 blade server. The images transfer to an old p620 box connected to some old SSA storage, each server backs up a mksysb and a savevg image. Now seeing as this method should be replacing our backups to LTO tapes I'm wondering if I still have the same functionality with these NIM backups, namely can I restore a single file or directory from the backed up images without restoring the entire image first?

we can restore individual file from mksysb image..

Before restoring the file check it out whether file exists in mksysbimage:

#listvgbackup -f /mksysbimage

To restore individual file:

#restorevgfiles -r -f /mksysbimagelocation ./etc/hosts

( . must to specify file)

Thanks sumathi.k, that's great.

Couple of questions. Because this is a NIM backup and hence sitting on an entirely different server (the NIM server), would you recommend creating a "restore area" on the NIM server for single file/directory restores then FTP'ing those files over to the server they came from? Or is it possible to directly restore from the server those files came from, effectively over the network?

Also you said this is for mksysb restores but does this also work with savevg images?

Thanks again.

Hi TBS,

Depends on what control you have over the environment...

If you are root everywhere then probably it will be easiest to NFS export the mksysb / savevg on the p620 and mount it up on the client and then do all the work on the client over the NFS mount.

If you have restrictions with NFS exports then restore it on the p620 to a tmp directory and ftp / scp / etc. to the client.

Savevg is just the same as a mksysb but without all the boot info, they both use the backup command under the covers so you can list / restore just the same.