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Re: Newbie has some questions regarding openVMS 7.1

 
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tsgdavid
Frequent Advisor
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Re: Newbie has some questions regarding openVMS 7.1

If your goal is to have a complete copy of the system disk that could be restored to a bootable disk, I would use a command similar to the following (keeping in mind that backing up an online disk may not be recommended for some files e.g. a database):

$ BACKUP/IMAGE/IGNORE=INTERLOCK SYS$SYSDEVICE: VMSAFP$DNFS1:[000000]vms20101116.bck/save

add a /VERIFY qualifier, if you want, but you will get a lot of mismatches for files that have changed while the backup is in progress.

If you don't add /VERIFY, I would consider listing the backup saveset to verify that you can read it with:

$ BACKUP/LIS VMSAFP$DNFS1:[000000]vms20101116.bck

I don't know how you would be able to restore this to a disk that is not booted. If you cannot come up with a tape drive, to connect to this system, you may want to create a complete copy on another disk that you can boot in an emergency.

Other people may have other suggestions for you.
Jan van den Ende
Honored Contributor

Re: Newbie has some questions regarding openVMS 7.1

Dave,

for system disk backup this does not look your best option: you need a running system to get NFS going, but then, you can not restore the system disk ( you CAN restore selected files ! )

Does this system not have any tape device?

If you HAVE one, use THAT!

From an image backup of the system disk a working system CAN be rebuild.

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe
Don't rust yours pelled jacker to fine doll missed aches.
Torsten Ermlich
Advisor

Re: Newbie has some questions regarding openVMS 7.1

Prost (oder: zum Wohl) ;)

No, currently it doesn't have any tape-drives, external hard-disks, or any other hardware-backup-units.

I think I'll attach an Sony SDT-9000 tape-unit to the system, as that's the mostly used tape-unit here (except the DAT320 drives).

Have a nice day
Torsten
Continuum Hierarchy Supervisor. You have already been assimilated.
tsgdavid
Frequent Advisor

Re: Newbie has some questions regarding openVMS 7.1

Torsten,
To summarize what you probably want to do (assuming that you can have the system down to do backup):

1) shutdown the system and power it off
2) attach SCSI tape drive
3) power the system on and boot from a CD
(you do have a CD don't you? You will need one if you have to restore)

4) from the menu select the option to access the DCL command line
5) MOUNT/OVERRIDE=ID disk-device
6) INIT tape-device label
7) BACKUP/IMAGE/VERIFY/REW disk-device: tape-device:vms20101116.bck
8) LOGOUT and shutdown the system
9) power the system off and disconnect the SCSI tape drive
10) Reboot the system normally

You would have some other options and flexibility if you had a second disk in the system that could contain a copy of the system disk. Disk drives are cheap!
Jan van den Ende
Honored Contributor

Re: Newbie has some questions regarding openVMS 7.1

Torsten:

Enschueldigung fuer die falsche Nahme!

Der stammte noch auch ein eheres Atwort, aber es sollte doch nicht sein!

That 's why I give you another:

Zum Wohl!

Ich spende Eins.

jpe
Don't rust yours pelled jacker to fine doll missed aches.
Torsten Ermlich
Advisor

Re: Newbie has some questions regarding openVMS 7.1

Dave,

till now I haven't found any CD ...
But its good to know that we need one!

I'll check that tomorrow.

Have a nice day!
Torsten
Continuum Hierarchy Supervisor. You have already been assimilated.
Torsten Ermlich
Advisor

Re: Newbie has some questions regarding openVMS 7.1

Don't worry, Jan ;)

I'll take it, as long as its blond & icy ;)

cu
Torsten
Continuum Hierarchy Supervisor. You have already been assimilated.
Andy Bustamante
Honored Contributor

Re: Newbie has some questions regarding openVMS 7.1

You're running a seriously out of date o/s and TCPIP version. At the very least, you can upgrade to TCPIP 5.1 with some patches. Do you have software support for this system? If so, you should check for CD kits possibly boxed away in a purchasing office. If not, you'll need to discuss "right to upgrade" with an HP sales critter.

Get a tape drive with enough tapes that you don't rely on a single copy. With a second hard drive, you can safely test your tape backups to a new bootable system disk. You can also create disk to disk backups of key files.
If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over? Reach me at first_name + "." + last_name at sysmanager net
Torsten Ermlich
Advisor

Re: Newbie has some questions regarding openVMS 7.1

I guess we have ... nothing.
The whole system was bought in 1996 or 1997, as part of an laboratory-equipment.
In 2004 or 2005 an massive data-loss happened, but as I started working there 01.09.2010 I have no real idea what happened.
There is no backup-unit, there were no handbooks, no system-wide documentation, no cd-roms, so I guess there's no service-agreement or stuff like that.

I'll do some more investigations today ;)

Have a nice day
Torsten
Continuum Hierarchy Supervisor. You have already been assimilated.
tsgdavid
Frequent Advisor

Re: Newbie has some questions regarding openVMS 7.1

Torsten,
You should find the CD or acquire one. It does not need to have the same version of VMS that you are running.

Meanwhile, you may want to go ahead and make a backup on tape so you will at least have one. You can backup to tape on the running system. Just be sure to include the /IGNORE=INTERLOCK and /IMAGE qualifiers on the BACKUP command.

You will still need to power the system off to connect/disconnect your SCSI tape drive.

If you install a second disk in your system, you could have two bootable copies of the disk. You would also have the option of booting from one disk and restoring to the other (without the need for a CD). This will work as long as both disks aren't corrupted at the same time)