Archiving the Entire System at AIX Versions 4.1 and 4.2


Contents

About this document
Documenting the system
System archive
Other volume groups
Raw logical volumes
Sysback 6000

About this document

This document describes what is required to archive an entire AIX system, both system and data. Information in this document is valid for AIX Version 4.1 through AIX Version 4.2.


Documenting the system

There should be either a hardcopy or data-diskette listing of information about the system. This will primarily be used when there are problems with archives.


System archive

In AIX, a bootable system backup is very important. This means that regular mksysb backups should be a part of the normal backup strategy.

A mksysb archive will back up only mounted JFS file systems in the root volume group. If there are user volume groups, there must be a separate backup of the other volume groups besides the mksysb.

For example:

    mksysb -i /dev/rmt#     (# to be replaced by 0, 1, and so on)

WARNING: Unmounted JFS file systems, non-JFS file systems, and raw logical volumes in rootvg will NOT be archived with a mksysb.


Other volume groups

When there are other volume groups, using the savevg command, this data can be archived.

For example:

    savevg -i /dev/rmt# vgname 

NOTE: Remember to create a savevg backup at the beginning of the tape for restvg to work. Do not append a savevg image after another image.


Raw logical volumes

The file system data has been archived. To archive a raw logical volume, use either software included with the database program or the AIX dd command.


Sysback 6000

Sysback 6000 is an IBM AIX add-on product that will allow the system files, other volume groups, and raw logical volumes to be archived onto the same tape. Other features are also available that standard AIX commands cannot offer.

NOTE: In AIX 4.x, sysback is the only method of archiving the system, other volume groups, and raw logical volumes onto a single tape set.

NOTE: If you want to exclude certain files from the backup, create the /etc/exclude.rootvg file, with an ASCII editor, and enter the patterns of file names that you do not want included in your system backup image. The patterns in this file are input to the pattern matching conventions of the grep (which uses regular expression) command to determine which files will be excluded from the backup. If you want to exclude files listed in the /etc/exclude.rootvg file, select the Exclude Files field and press the Tab key once to change the default value to yes.

For example, to exclude all the contents of the directory called scratch, edit the exclude file to read as follows:

     /scratch/

For example, to exclude the contents of the directory called /tmp, and avoid excluding any other directories that have /tmp in the pathname, edit the exclude file to read as follows:

     ^./tmp/






[ Doc Ref: 90605203014664     Publish Date: Oct. 29, 2001]