Need straight forward make_recovery tape instructions

[Timothy Czarnik]

Debbie,

1) Time to create depends on filesystem sizes, but the ones I create here take about 45 minutes to create.

2) If you are recovering a down system, and don't want to change ANYTHING, then just boot from the tape and walk away. It's automatic from that point on.

3) Our use of make_recovery does not vary between 10.20 and 11.0.

-Tim

[Patrick Wallek]

Just a point of clarification:

If you use the make_recovery command in my first reply, it contains the '-i' option which FORCES the install to come up and be interactive when you boot from the tape. If you omit this option then a message will be displayed that says something like "Press any key within 10 seconds to ......" something. I forget exactly what it is. Basically, at that point you have 10 seconds to press a key which will interrupt the installation and take you into the configuration tool. If you do not interrupt it, then it will go through and install your system identical to what it was when the tape was made. Even if you do interrupt the boot from the tape, or have '-i' in the command, you can still tell it to do the installation without changing anything.

The best thing to do is make a tape and try it if you have a test system that you can do an installation on. That's always the best way to learn how things work.

[Dave Wherry]

Patrick,
Thanks for you first answer. There are some new options I have never used, but will now.
I do question why you say we must use the no rewind device? I never have and my tapes have worked fine. Is it related to some of these other options? I've just used Av and D when my DAT is not 0m.

Debbie,
I'm glad you gave him 10 points. It's a great example of a concise and complete answer.

[Patrick Wallek]

Dave,

I'm glad you found my answer useful. I try to the best I can to help.

To answer your question on the no-rewind device:

Partially I am going by the make_recovery man page --

-d destination Specifies the device file of a DDS or DLT tape drive where the System Recovery Tape is to be created. A no-rewind device file is required. The default is /dev/rmt/0mn.

I guess my thought on the issue has always been that if you do not use the #mn device then your tape might not be bootable.

Let's look at it this way: make_recovery creates the boot_lif, or whatever makes the tape bootable, as the first file on the tape. Then, the 2nd file on the tape is your pax archive of VG00 and whatever else, if anything is appropriate. If you do NOT use the no-rewind device, then you are taking a chance that the tape will rewind itself AFTER creating the boot area on the tape and BEFORE it does the pax archive, thus rendering your tape un-bootable.

I have always just used the no-rewind device just to be on the safe side.

Debbie -- This reminds me, make sure you have the latest PAX patch on your system. On my 10.20 system I have PHCO_20388. If you do not have this then you can have problems with make_recovery when it creates the archvie of VG00, etc.

[Dave Wherry]

Patrick,
I've been out of town so a late reply here.

Thinking about it a little more, I'm not sure I have ever tried to recover from a make_recovery tape where my DAT drive was not drive 0. If my DAT is drive 0 I have just used options -AvC and let make_recovery select the default. I guess it is using device 0mn in the background. I have successfully used those tapes many times.
On systems where my DAT is drive 1, I have been using options "-AvCd /dev/rmt/1m".
The tape gets created. However I may be under the illusion that I can recover from this tape as the LIF may have been overwritten. It takes a couple of hours, I don't stand there and watch it.

This is a very good point for every one to think about when cutting their make_recovery tapes. Thanks.

Dave

[Tom Danzig]

You do not need to specify the no rewind device name. make_recovery will add the n suffix to the device name automatically during the LIF creation process. The output from make_recovery (if using the -v switch) will confirm this.

[Ed Hon]

Debbie, one other thing to be aware of is that a recovery from a make_recovery tape will not normally recover the mirror volume of an LVM root mirror. You have to update the mirror manually after the recovery. If you want it to occur automatically, you have to add the commands to the post_config_cmd section of the /var/opt/ignite/recovery/config.recover file after it is created by invoking "make_recovery -p" (preview mode). There are various KBdocs that describe it in more detail.