topic Re: Good Backup plan. in Operating System - HP-UX

Good Backup plan.

brian_31 — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 11:46:57 GMT

Team:

We have several hp-ux machines running 11.0. some have MCSG too. i just need to know what would be a good backup plan to have ex..if i have 4 vg's then i normally do a make_rec and also fbackup. can someone share their expertise to let me know what combination would give a fool proof method so that we can recover the data in the event of a disk failure.

Thanks

brian.

Re: Good Backup plan.

Mel Burslan — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 11:54:27 GMT

my 2 cents :

Always have a BBT, a.k.a., make_recovery tape. Never trust Bare-Metal-Restore utilities from any backup/restore software vendor.

On the other hand fbackup is a false sense of security in MY OPINION. I have failed to find and restore files from an fbackup archive more than half the time I tried.

If your data is critical enough, which I presume so since you are in a MCSG environment, blow some budget and get a decent backup-restore software. Any of HP Omniback/DataProtector, Veritas NetBackup or Legato Networker (now subsidiary of EMC) along with some other lesser known software work fine.

Again these are MY OPINIONS (I can not emphasize this enough)

Re: Good Backup plan.

Pete Randall — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 11:57:38 GMT

Brian,

First, you need to download the newest version of Ignite and start using "make_tape_recovery". The newer version is more reliable and worth the effort to download and install:

http://www.software.hp.com/products/IUX/index.html

Use Ignite to back up your root VG on a weekly basis and/or whenever a change happens. For the rest of your data, you need to determine how often you should run what type of backup (full, incremental, level). The volatility of your data and the ease of recovery will be your deciding factors. We run nightly full backups of our DB and weekly full backups of our other file systems with nightly incrementals.

Also, be sure that you have an offsite storage plan set up so that you can still have access to the data in case of catastrophe.

Pete

Re: Good Backup plan.

brian_31 — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 12:12:50 GMT

Thanks. here is what i do..

make_tape_rec -x (i include all vg's here) and then fbackup of /. Is this combination ok? or shd i have the make_tape_rec of vg00 alone?

Thanks
brian.

Re: Good Backup plan.

Mel Burslan — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 12:42:06 GMT

it is a good thing to have an OS only, (read as, vg00 only) make recovery tape, just in case one of your devices in other vg's go bad or something . It is a bit time consuming but, better safe than sorry.

Re: Good Backup plan.

Pete Randall — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 12:48:01 GMT

Brian,

The way you're doing it with make_tape_recovery of all vg's is like running a full backup every time. The idea behind Ignite is to get your Operating System up and running quickly so that you can then use your regular backup/restore utility to recover the rest of your data. Obviously, you can do it either way, but I prefer to Ignite just vg00 and restore the rest!

Pete

Re: Good Backup plan.

brian_31 — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 13:11:34 GMT

Team:

Thanks for all the replies.

so i think the best bet would be to make ignite copy of vg00 and fbackup the rest of the filesystems. I hope this is ok.

Thanks

brian.

Re: Good Backup plan.

Pete Randall — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 13:16:31 GMT

Brian,

That is exactly the approach I would take.

Good luck,

Pete

Re: Good Backup plan.

Patrick Wallek — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 13:17:29 GMT

Yes, the make_tape_recovery of VG00 and fbackup of everything else should be fine.

Now the next step is to actually TEST doing a restore. Ideally you should test a COMPLETE system restore using both the make_tape_recovery tape and your fbackup tape(s) to recover the entire system. Your backup is only good if you have a high confidence that you can actually restore from it if needed.

Re: Good Backup plan.

Rita C Workman — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 13:43:45 GMT

Guess I'll throw my 2 cents in here too...

Depending on what your running...make sure your backup is 'solid'. Example: If your running Oracle applications, then make sure your definitely in hot backup mode or Oracle is down and your backing up cold. The cold method is the safest.
But I don't recall you mentioning what your backing up and what state everything is in when you do...so....

Now once you've done your ignite tape for your O/S and done an fbackup, Patrick mentioned doing a restore...Please....restore on a test box, outside your MC/SG environment !!! and see if you can get your applications back up and running on this test box. If you do, then your method is working. But if it chokes...well....better to find out here than in production..

Rgrds,
Rita

...testing is always better than 'getting burned'

Re: Good Backup plan.

Steven E. Protter — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 14:23:53 GMT

We do make_tape_recovery with the latest Ignite of vg00 only. To restore data on vg01, in a multi vg backup situation you have to overwrite vg00 even if there is nothing wrong with it.

Beyond that, fbackup has let down a few times, which leads me not to trust it. If you are religous however and do more fbackups than you need, it can be good enough.

If I have the bucks, I go for Veritas or DP.

So my only argument with you is Ignite system.

I would include only vg's required to boot the box. That will preserve your entire lvm structure.

SEP

Re: Good Backup plan.

R. Allan Hicks — Thu, 10 Jun 2004 07:56:07 GMT

As far as "fool-proof solid plans" go......

You might find UNIX Backup and Recovery by W. Curtis Preston (ISBN: 1-56592-642-0)
a good read.

I heard him speak at a backup and recovery seminar, and he was very good.

Expereniced people might say "well that's obvious", but I found a few gems that made me stop and think about how reliable my backups are.

The thing about backups is that you never know if they worked until you need them. I set up a couple of disaster recovery drills and found a few surprises. I've also have lost my entire Oracle database and spent 23 hrs straight putting it back together which is an experience I don't want to repeat. It shouldn't have taken that long, but my backup utility (which shall remain nameless) had some issues and I had to recover the recovery before I could recover the database.

Also, backups don't do you a lot of good if the building you house your server and your backup tapes burns down. So, don't forget to take the long view and consider off-site storage and the whole spectrum of disasters from the janitor unplugging your server so he can vaccum to the building being under water.

---Stuff happens----

Good luck