Creating an ignite tape

[Ray Bell]

Hey I wnat to create an agnite tape that will include all the volume group on the tape. Is the command to do this is: make_tape_recovery -v -a "tape device" -x inc_entire=vg00 -x inc_entire=vg01 -x inc_entire=vg02

Will this get all the files under vg00, vg01 and vg02?

[khilari]

Hi Ray, well u can use the command.
#make_tape_recovery -x inc_entire=vg00 -x inc_entire=vg01 -x inc_entire=vg02 -a /dev/rmt/0mn -I

// with -x you can add as many volume groups u want, depending on how much space u have in ur tape, with -a u specify the output device ur tape and 0mn meaning no rewind. And -I is for interactive recovery.

[Patrick Wallek]

Yes it will, but why do you want to?

Ignite is best suited as an emergency backup of your VG00, just in case you have a catastrophic failure and need to restore it.

Having other VG's on the Ignite tape will add to the length of time it takes to create the tape, and will also add to the time it takes to restore. If you are at the point of having to use the Ignite tape, you want the restore to go as quickly as possible.

Also, depending on how ofter you create the Ignite tape, if you have to restore then you may have severely outdated data for your other VGs. If your other data is in separate VGs, then chances are if you need to restore your VG00, your other VGs may not be effected, so there is no need to restore them.

If everything is on the Ignite tape, and you have to restore, then you have NO CHOICE but to restore everything.

Your best bet is to use Ignite to back up VG00 and some other tool (fbackup possibly) to back up your other data.

[DCE]

Ray,

That should do it.

For vg00 and vg01, I would recommend using fbackup (the native HPUX backup software) or some other backup program.

Three reasons
it's quicker
Its easier to include/exclude specific files/directories
It's much easier to restore one or specific files/directories.

[James R. Ferguson · Accepted solution]

Hi Ray:

Ignite is not a generic backup mechanism. It is designed to recover an operating system environment and thus should be limited to vg00's standard logical volumes, in my option.

By doing this, you provide the greatest flexability in recovery and cloning.

A viable syntax for making a 'make_tape_recovery' image of vg00 is:

# /opt/ignite/bin/make_tape_recovery -x inc_entire=vg00 -I -v -a /dev/rmt/0mn

Note the no-rewind tape device. The '-I' switch causes the recovery to be interactive when booting from the recovery tape.

Use some other (approprate) backup utility to handle non-vg00 data.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Ray Bell]

We are doing a restore of a system from an ignite tape and system backup. This will be the standard process we will used. For this case to prove to our customers we can do this I'm doing this as an emergency in case we have problem and need to get this sysyetm back online. The user will be going live on Wednesday and we are wiping all the disks on Monday and restoring them back.

So wanted to have a backup plan...

[Ray Bell]

When I ran the command I received the following error:

Please tell me what I need to do.... The file is attached...

[Patrick Wallek]

Well, the log file tells you what you need to do:

Verify that another make_tape_recovery is not already running and then remove the file /var/tmp/ign_configure/make_sys_image_flag23833

It is causing Ignite to think that another process is already running.