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  • 1.  AIX rootvg + Flashsystem Safeguarded Copy

    Posted Tue April 07, 2026 04:39 PM

    Hi everyone,

    I'd like to ask for your input and hear your thoughts if you have any experience testing the following: FlashSystem Safeguarded Copies of AIX rootvg (including VIOS).

    This is working under the premise that we will always be recovering this copy to the same LPAR profile.

    I've taken some of these copies in the past, tested the recovery process, and it worked successfully.

    I would love to hear your thoughts regarding copy integrity, the best methods, prerequisites, best practices, or any other more effective approaches (specifically regarding OS and component integrity, RPO, and RTO).

    Thanks in advance!

    My apologies if this topic has been discussed before. I did a quick search and couldn't find anything related.



    ------------------------------
    Bruno Melo
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: AIX rootvg + Flashsystem Safeguarded Copy

    Posted Tue April 07, 2026 11:52 PM

    Hi Bruno...

    Regarding rootvg recovery, I think Safeguarded copies could work very well (keeping in mind that backup policies must be applied and that the recovery will be performed according to a scheduled timeline, providing a specific RPO).

    Since data changes in rootvg are not as critical or dynamic as those in a database or user application data, recovery can be managed from a Safeguarded copy without problems.

    Although restoring the Safeguarded copy to the original LUN (Spectrum Virtualize 8.7.0.0 and later) can recover data from the rootvg disk(s) in seconds, there are other strategies for recovering rootvg, such as converting an mksysb file into an ISO image and placing it in a VIOS virtual repository so that LPARs can boot via vSCSI and quickly recover rootvg.

    Since this procedure is not available for VIOS recovery, mksysb is typically stored on a NIM server, and rootvg recovery can be performed over the network.

    Rootvg recovery necessarily requires either shutting down the LPAR and restarting it to restore it, or restoring the safeguarded copy to the original LUNs, as it cannot be performed while the system is running.

    Under normal conditions, the recovery process, from problem identification to complete restoration, can take about 30 minutes or less, regardless of the recovery strategy chosen.

    If an automated procedure is selected, it can be run, for example, at 3:00 AM, saving some time.



    ------------------------------
    Luis Alberto Rojas Kramer

    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: AIX rootvg + Flashsystem Safeguarded Copy

    Posted Wed April 08, 2026 11:35 AM
    On Tue, Apr 07, 2026 at 08:38:35PM +0000, Bruno Melo via IBM Community wrote:
    > Hi everyone,
    >
    > I'd like to ask for your input and hear your thoughts if you have any experience testing the following: FlashSystem Safeguarded Copies of AIX rootvg (including VIOS).
    >
    > This is working under the premise that we will always be recovering this copy to the same LPAR profile.
    >
    > I've taken some of these copies in the past, tested the recovery process, and it worked successfully.
    >
    > I would love to hear your thoughts regarding copy integrity, the best methods, prerequisites, best practices, or any other more effective approaches (specifically regarding OS and component integrity, RPO, and RTO).

    The best practice for any storage level copy of VG data is to flush
    buffers and freeze IO to that VG while the snapshot is taken. I don't
    believe that is allowed on rootvg. That means if you take a storage
    snapshot, it may be incomplete.

    It's likely that it will boot and recover after an FSCK, provided the
    rootvg ONLY has AIX OS data and no application data. Then it'd be very
    similar to recovery after a hard power off.

    Alternatively you might consider having another LUN and doing a
    nightly alt_disk_copy to that LUN. That alt_disk_copy LUN can be
    mirrored offsite. It's recreated daily, but is offline 99% of the
    time. If you failover you ought to be able to boot that copy without
    issue. That's better than a NIM or fileshare mksysb, as no restore is
    required.

    Alt_disk_copy works for VIO as well, however syncing LPAR profiles
    between sites would be a problem. I'd suggest setup VIO at each site,
    and only storage mirror the LPARs. Then you can rapidly build a new
    LPAR for your data recovery. Having pre-built LPARs is a fine idea,
    but still VIO should be local and not part of the failover solution.

    Best of luck!


    ------------------------------------------------------------------
    Russell Adams Russell.Adams@AdamsSystems.nl
    Principal Consultant Adams Systems Consultancy
    https://adamssystems.nl/


    Original Message


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