Recover OS via backups only

[Tony Drake_2]

I am doing DR planning for a lot of different systems. The question has been raised of how an HP system can be recovered using our OS backups (using Veritas Netbackup). Can we do this with a recovery shell? Do we have to recover a full OS first?

We are looking at this becuase Ignite is becoming very complex to administer with the number an variety of systems involved.

Any info or experiences would be appreciated.

Tony

[Peyman Javaheri]

Hi Tony,

I have not yet come across a solution better than Ignite for HP-UX. I never used Netbackup, but I assume that you could ask that question from Veritas.

In general though, you need minimum O/S tools/layers to start a backup client, which should not be there with a recovery shell, but if you build a Mini-Ignite type solution you can. One way would be using Ignite with minimal directories to backup. Something that would restore everything you need fast without complexity to start your backup software agent.

peyman;

[Tony Drake_2]

That was the question I was seeking the answer to.

If the ignite recovery shell cannot run a backup client, which means we should use ignite.

Anyone else have any other ideas>?

[Mobeen_1]

Tony,
I may not have a direct answer to the question you have posed, but we have been using a different Enterprise Backup Management tool called Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM).

We had a host of different OS including HPUX that we were backing up to TSM. We have tried to recover several times sucessfully and the method deployed was

1. Setup the hardware
2. Install Minimum OS and the backup client
software (veritass client)
3. Start the recovery process from your
backup (in your case veritas) to the new
server
4. This has to be tested several times..
i.e identify the precise list of config
files that you would like to copy or
overwrite
5. Reboot the server so that it comes back
up with the new configuration
6. If you have some RDBMS or other
applications that are supposed to run
on this server...then start the recovery
for that. In our case we used to have
Sybase ASE

I am sure this would require many runs and fine tuning before you get the final plan that works :)

regards
Mobeen

[Tony Drake_2]

Mobeen:

This is more like what I was looking for.

Can you share your experiences more with me on this?

For example, what is the minimal OS you installed and how did you install it (Ignite or CD Install media)

What problems did you run into?

Thanks.

[Mobeen_1]

Tony,
Our efforts were just not limited to HP-UX, we did this for the entire data centre that had the following entities
1. Tru64
2. OpenVMS
3. Solaris
4. AIX/Tivoli Storage Manager and
5. HPUX

We tried several means to recover each of these boxes and finally found out that the best way to do this is using the OS CDs. For each of these we booted up the boxes using their OS CDs and installed the OS MIN and then the backup client software and then use that backup client software to recover the /root or system disk to a new disk and carefully overwrite the configuration.

Hope this helps, if you need any specific information, let me know.

regards
Mobeen

[Tony Drake_2]

Mobeen:
I would like to know for HPUX if you had any issues with files that you were not supposed to overwrite. I know that there is supposed to be a list of files that after an ignite or minimum install, that you do not overwrite, but I have not found them.

I'd also like more details on your procedures on HPUX if you have more info to give.

thanks.

[Mobeen_1]

Tony,
Please review "Cold Instal" procedures in the list below.
http://docs.hp.com/en/5990-7279/ch02s02.html#d0e918

regards
Mobeen

[Tony Drake_2]

I don't see how this applies to recovery using a tape backup?

[Mobeen_1 · Accepted solution]

Tony,
I am sorry, i think i should have elaborated more ... apologies :)

Actually as i mentioned earlier, we looked at various aspects and thought that for the kind of business we are into and for our environment and our requirement the following means of recoevery is the best

1. Install OS (HPUX) from CD
2. Install the backup client (we were on TSM)
3. Connect using the backup client to the
backup server and recover /root to a
different file system
4. Copy any site specific stuff we had to
the new /root from the restored /root

The link i posted was more for item#1 above. As for item#4, i would think there is no easy way and i would suggest that you try a couple of times and you would get a list of things...as in our case we had lot of site specific stuff.

We did have the files that we used to over wtite by grouping them into 2 categories, site specific and OS files, unfortunately i don't have those files now as we are done with that at a client place and the same was documented and passed over....

I hope i am clear ... sorry for any confusion i created :)

rgds
Mobeen

[Tony Drake_2]

Thanks Mobeen. Now I understand.

[Rashid Hamid]

Hi Tony

I suggest for HPUX OS you should use the ignite-ux to recovery the os. Meaning that you must run make_tape_recovery to backup the OS. On top of that, for the rest file system you can use Veritas Netbackup. In order to recover the entire system, you need the OS to be recover first. The best way is to boot the system using the ignite tape. I've done it before...
Same goes to AIX box, you can recover the rootvg using mksysb tape and use veritas to recover the rest.

Regards
Rashid

[Steve White_7]

Hi Tony,

In attempting to recover entire systems a combination of utilities is generally required. The corporate backup is the primary line of defense for your data, there is difficulty in having it recover the environment.

I use ignite for hpux, you must update the image each time a change to the system on the root volume group occurs. If you patch the system, change a password the ignite image has to be updated.

I use ghost for Intel based systems and then of course the corporate backup. The lines of defence I generally only apply to critical or mission critical environments. I also store the ignite and ghost images in a fireproof safe.

There is a lot of effort required to manage this well that is why it is reserved to critical environments.


HTH