Originally posted by: motif

AIX: 5.3

Is it possible to backup system that does not have tape driver or writable DVD driver?

Thanks.

Originally posted by: hwyguy

Yes,

You can backup to a file if you like using savevg, mksysb, or mkdvd.

For mksysb, instead of specfiying a device (i.e. /dev/rmt0), just specify the full path to a new mksysb file.

With DVD you can create a DVD image and burn it to a DVD/CD on a different system if you like by doing a mkdvd to a file, transferring the file to an AIX host with a DVD burner, and running burn_cd to burn the image onto dvd.

Let me know if you'd like more detailed info on any of these options.

Originally posted by: motif

Thank you very much.

Can I do it as following:

1. mksysb -i /mksysb_images/node1
2. ftp file image.data to a PC, then burn it to DVD as image file.

How this image.data can be used to reinstall system like bootable tape?

Originally posted by: hwyguy

My recommendation would be to create the mksysb on your source system (the system you want to back up), and also create the DVD image on the source system. FTP the DVD image to a host with a DVD-RW drive and burn the image from there. I've only tried burning an image on an AIX host with burn_cd but you might also be able to burn it on a Windows host using a Burn-ISO image option, the only caveat is that you'd have to rename the file to .iso.

Here's a quick overview on the steps involved. For example purposes, the source system is hostA and the host with the DVD writer will be host B. Both systems are AIX hosts.

Note, you can create the mksysb and DVD image in one step with the mkdvd command, but I haven't had as much success restoring the DVD that way. Also, it really dosen't take that much more time.

Also note that I'm doing this via command line for all commands, but it may be easier for some admins to use 'smitty mksysb' and 'smitty mkdvd' instead. burn_cd is a command line ONLY
Host A

1.) Create the mksysb:

mksysb -i -X /directory/mksysb.file

2.) Create the DVD Image with the new mksysb. Note, you'll need at least 1-2 GB each in /dvd1 and /dvd2, DVD1 is more of a temp space, while the final image is placed in /dvd2. mkdvd can create these filesystems for you if you like, just specify which volume group you would like to create them in with the -V flag:

/usr/sbin/mkcd -L -m /directory/mksysb.file -C /dvd1/ -I /dvd2 -V rootvg -R -S

3.) After the dvd is created, cd to /dvd2 . You should see a file named cd_image_XXXXXX where XXXXXX is a sequence number. Feel free to rename this as you wish. This is your ISO DVD Image, ready for burning

4.) FTP the cd_image_XXXXXX to your AIX host which contains the DVD writer

Host B

1.) Run the command burn_cd -d /dev/cd0 /directory/dvdimagename

This part will take the longest, sometimes over an hour. After the burning is complete, you now have your own mksysb on DVD! Enjoy!
Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks!

Originally posted by: motif

Thank you all for your help!.

Originally posted by: SystemAdmin

The CD you are gonna burn should be bootable. Watch Out.

I have not tried this...
Regards,

Prem