Need straight forward make_recovery tape instructions

[Debbie Fleith]

I've never used Ignite befpre and the documentation on all of its features can get overwhelming.

Can anyone give me some brief instructions on how to use make_recovery to backup and restore a full HP-UX 10.20 operating system backup?

[Patrick Wallek · Accepted solution]

The following is the command I use in a script to make a make_recovery tape of my systems:

/opt/ignite/bin/make_recovery -A -i -t "Make recovery of system `uname -n` on `date`" -d /dev/rmt/0mn

The options mean:

-A - The entire root disk / volume group will be backed up.

-i - Causes the recovery process to be interactive automatically when booting from the tape.

-t - Specifies a custom message that will be displayed to the user during a recovery from the tape.

-d - Tape device to write the information to. Currently make_recovery supports DDS and DLT tapes. It REQUIRES the use of the no-rewind device (/dev/rmt/#mn).

This will get the tape created for you. To boot from the tape, make sure the tape is in the tape drive. I always write-protect my tapes when booting, just to be on the safe side. Then reboot your machine, interrupt the boot process and boot from the tape. This will then bring up the installation interface and you can then customize any system settings (IP address, size of vgoo LVs, etc.) and let ignite re-install your system.

[Dan Hetzel]

Hi Debbie,

Patrick gave you a fairly complete desciption so I won't start again.

Keep in mind that the 'make_recovery -A....' won't backup any volume group other than the root volume group.
You'll have to use any other backup tool to save those as well (fbackup, omniback, legato...)

Best regards,

Dan

[Suhas_2]

Hi,
I fully agree with what Patric and Dan say.
I would like to add something.
1> If certain important areas are not in your root disk,
you can still back them up.
2> Now about restore. Suppose your system has crashed. Put thee ignite-tape in the drive. Hard boot the system. During the process of coming up , interupt the boot sequence. It will ask
a: Interact with IPL....say "Y"
b: the it will give you that prompt.
c: There you can say "sea "
the system will search for boot path.
d: within three-four miutes it will show you all the valid paths from where you can boot.
e: By default P0 is the tape drive.
f: You can type in the command as "bo P0"
g: The system will ask whether you want to have an interactive session ?....simply say "no"....
h: Ignite will take care of the rest of the things.
i: the recovery process will take some 45 minutes.
Ultimately you will find your system up and running.
(pls note ...the system itself goes through two reboots automatically...do not interrupt it...unless you get the normal message as "system is ready" &
console login : )

Hope this helps....
Suhas .

[Tommy Brown]

Make certain you have a current version of Ignite..

Tommy

[Cheryl Griffin]

A recovery backup is so important that there should be confidence that it is done correctly.

The man page for make_recovery unlike some man pages, does an *extremely* good job of explaining exactly what is backed up, how to make the backup, how to extract a single file from the archive, sample commands, etc.
# man make_recovery

Ignite's home page is: http://www.software.hp.com/products/IUX/

[Debbie Fleith]

Thanks everyone for some great advice!

Suhas notes that I can still backup non-root disk areas. Others say I can only backup the root volume group. Which is correct?

Can someone verify with me that these make_recovery instructions can be used to backup one Hp-UX 10.20 server and restore to another un-configured HP server?

I want to create a "backup" server to be configured exactly like my primary one?

[Patrick Wallek]

Debbie,

Actually all of us are somewhat correct on the root VG issue.

Her is an excerpt from the make_recovery man page:

make_recovery creates a bootable system recovery tape for an LVM or whole disk system while it is up and running. When a system has a
logical volume layout, the recovery tape will only include data from
the root volume group, plus data from any Non-root volume group
containing /usr.

and another excerpt:

If /usr is not on the root volume group, then the entire volume group on which /usr resides is also archived. This is because of core files needed from the /usr directory.

So basically if the /usr LV is in VG00 then only VG00 will get backed up. If /usr LV is in VG01, then VG00 and VG01 will get backed up.


To answer you second question:

Yes you can take the make_recovery tape created on one system and then use that tape to configure another system. The general feeling is that this will work pretty well if the two systems are of a similar configuration. Backing up a K box and going to another K box would probably work, while backing up a K box and installing on an L box might not work. It all depends on the hardware configuration and the fact that each series of machine will require slightly different kernel driver.

[Debbie Fleith]

Thanks again!

A few final questions:

1. Approximately how long does it take to make the initial "make_recovery" tape? I see I can expect the recovery process to take about 45 minutes.

2. If I am restoring a down system and wanted to keep the exact same ip address, logical volume sizes, etc., do I have to reset these configuration items, or will the tape restore these from the original tape. (Do I just have an option to change these, or do I "have to" go through the process for the recovery to complete?)

3. Are these instructions valid for recovering an HP-UX 11.0 system?

[Dan Hetzel]

Hi Debbie,

It's difficult to tell you how long it will take as we have no idea about:
- the size of your root volume group
- the size of the volume group containing /usr if different (thanks to Patrick as we all seemed to have forgotten this point)
- the kind of media you're archiving to

Regarding the IP address, you'll have to provide it, as make_recovery allows you to create a tape on one system and restore on another "similar" system.

Best regards,

Dan