AIX

Hello,

I know I can save a mksysb or savevg to /dev/usbms0 as per document https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/using-and-taking-advantage-usb-devices-and-aix#mksysb

Is it possible to store both the mksysb AND savevg data on the same USB device or will the bootable mksysb be overwritten by the savevg?

p.s. I would try this but can't get to the system easily to put a USB drive in to test this :-(

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Glenn Robinson
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Hello,

I know I can save a mksysb or savevg to /dev/usbms0 as per document https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/using-and-taking-advantage-usb-devices-and-aix#mksysb

Is it possible to store both the mksysb AND savevg data on the same USB device or will the bootable mksysb be overwritten by the savevg?

p.s. I would try this but can't get to the system easily to put a USB drive in to test this :-(

You should be able to create a mksysb of your system and then add as many savevgs of any other VGs as space allows.  The mksysb must be first because the first step for mksysb is to format the device/media.

First do a mksysb to the usb device using the mksysb options of your choice.  Mksysb wipes out the current device content because mksysb formats the device as a UDFS file system.

Once the mksysb to the device is complete, manually mount the USB device and you should see a typical AIX file system.  This is just enough AIX to boot from the USB device and perform a restore of rootvg.  The actual rootvg backup file if I remember correctly is under /usr/sys/inst.images.  The bacukp file is really just a customized file list from rootvg fed to the the backup command. 

Pick a location for your savevg(s) files on the mounted USB device.  Create directories if desired.  Run savevg on each vg and outputting the savevg to a file on the usb device.

To restore rootvg, boot from the USB and restore rootvg using options of your choice.  Once rootvg is restored, boot from the restored system, mount the USB device and restore the remaining savevgs as needed using typical restore vg procedures.

Our environement has a number of remote AIX servers with a fairly small disk footprint leaving a lot of available space.  We also have mirrored or raided disks so a single disk failure doesn't force a recovery.  Rather than make a mksysb to USB device, we create a mkssyb file to an excluded local directory/file on each system.  We then transfer a copy of that mksysb backup file to another storage location typically in a different facility to provide an offsite backup.  Should a full system recovery be required, the remote mksysb copy is used to create a bootable mksysb USB from an existing mksysb file and then the bootable USB is used to restore the failed system.  The one requirement when making the USB recovery device is that the system on which the recovery USB is created must be at the same or higher AIX level.  This is becasue the bootable part of the recovery device is made from the running AIX, not from the content of the mksysb backup.   Does this sound like a poormans backup system?  That's exactly what it is.  HMC, NIM etc can all play a role if you have them.  

One large advantage of the disk saves and only create USB as needed is not having to manage USB sticks inserting them into servers for backup.  This method can be automated with a few scripts such that no manual intervention is required unless recovery is required.  Downtime for backup is minimal.  The copy to remote storage doesn't have to be done during the backup period. etc. etc.

Jim

Hello,

I know I can save a mksysb or savevg to /dev/usbms0 as per document https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/using-and-taking-advantage-usb-devices-and-aix#mksysb

Is it possible to store both the mksysb AND savevg data on the same USB device or will the bootable mksysb be overwritten by the savevg?

p.s. I would try this but can't get to the system easily to put a USB drive in to test this :-(

You should be able to create a mksysb of your system and then add as many savevgs of any other VGs as space allows.  The mksysb must be first because the first step for mksysb is to format the device/media.

First do a mksysb to the usb device using the mksysb options of your choice.  Mksysb wipes out the current device content because mksysb formats the device as a UDFS file system.

Once the mksysb to the device is complete, manually mount the USB device and you should see a typical AIX file system.  This is just enough AIX to boot from the USB device and perform a restore of rootvg.  The actual rootvg backup file if I remember correctly is under /usr/sys/inst.images.  The bacukp file is really just a customized file list from rootvg fed to the the backup command. 

Pick a location for your savevg(s) files on the mounted USB device.  Create directories if desired.  Run savevg on each vg and outputting the savevg to a file on the usb device.

To restore rootvg, boot from the USB and restore rootvg using options of your choice.  Once rootvg is restored, boot from the restored system, mount the USB device and restore the remaining savevgs as needed using typical restore vg procedures.

Our environement has a number of remote AIX servers with a fairly small disk footprint leaving a lot of available space.  We also have mirrored or raided disks so a single disk failure doesn't force a recovery.  Rather than make a mksysb to USB device, we create a mkssyb file to an excluded local directory/file on each system.  We then transfer a copy of that mksysb backup file to another storage location typically in a different facility to provide an offsite backup.  Should a full system recovery be required, the remote mksysb copy is used to create a bootable mksysb USB from an existing mksysb file and then the bootable USB is used to restore the failed system.  The one requirement when making the USB recovery device is that the system on which the recovery USB is created must be at the same or higher AIX level.  This is becasue the bootable part of the recovery device is made from the running AIX, not from the content of the mksysb backup.   Does this sound like a poormans backup system?  That's exactly what it is.  HMC, NIM etc can all play a role if you have them.  

One large advantage of the disk saves and only create USB as needed is not having to manage USB sticks inserting them into servers for backup.  This method can be automated with a few scripts such that no manual intervention is required unless recovery is required.  Downtime for backup is minimal.  The copy to remote storage doesn't have to be done during the backup period. etc. etc.

Jim

Hello,

I know I can save a mksysb or savevg to /dev/usbms0 as per document https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/using-and-taking-advantage-usb-devices-and-aix#mksysb

Is it possible to store both the mksysb AND savevg data on the same USB device or will the bootable mksysb be overwritten by the savevg?

p.s. I would try this but can't get to the system easily to put a USB drive in to test this :-(