Best way to backup system disk.

[Gino Castoldi_2]

Hi,

L2000 HP-UX 11.0 Mirror/UX for the boot disk (two-way).

We are going to install an external tape drive so we can create Ignite-UX tapes.

We however need to install
"stape" patches first.

What would be the best way to backup/save the system disk in case something goes wrong?

We do have a spare 9GB LVD disk that we can install in our server if need be.
(it's just a matter of removing it from another L2000 server, it's unmounted).

10 points to any good answer.
Thank you
Gino

[Pete Randall · Accepted solution]

Gino,

Break the existing mirror, apply the patches, test, and, aswuming everything is OK, re-establish the mirror.


Pete

[Stefan Schulz]

Hi Gino,

just a quick shot from my side. Do you really need to install the patches first? Normally most tape drives should work reliable with the unpatched drivers.

So even if your tape doesn't work perfect without the patches it should work reliable.

You didn't mention what tapedrive you have, but if its not necessary to install the patches to get the drive "working" just do a make_tape_recovery.

Hope this helps

Regards Stefan

[Rainer von Bongartz]

Create at least two recovery tape with
make_tape_recovery -AC

Store them in two different places.

Then just include your boot disk in your backup procedure.

REMEMBER:

Every time you change vg00 take new recovery tapes

Regards
Rainer

[Bill McNAMARA_1]

I agree with the mirror split approach!

recall that ignite mirrordisk system image restore will not recreate the mirrors. Ignites purpose is to get and unbootable box up and running quickly!

Later,
Bill

[Tom Danzig]

I'm in agrreement with Stephan. HP-UX should work out of the box w/o any stape patches (provided the driver is in the kernel which I'm certain it already is. Once you install the drive and do your make_tape_recovery, then apply the stape patches.

The mirror appraoch will work also although I think the former approach is easy and safe enough.

[Helen French]

First, when you install Ignite-UX, you need to install pax(1m) patch too. For the backup, I would do a root mirroring with Mirror-UX and then create a recovery tape:

# make_tape_recovery -a tape_device_name -I -v -x inc_entire=vg00

For data backup, I would do an fbackup (if you don't have a special backup s/w) either from command line or a scheduled one from SAM.

[Gino Castoldi_2]

Hi,

It seems that splitting the
mirrored boot disk is the preferred method.

FYI:
HP said that we need certain
"stape" patches for our new
DAT 40e external tape drive
so that's why we patching it.

FYI: We do not have Ignite-UX
yet, that's why we're installing the tape drive
in the first place.
I would prefer to use Ignite-UX myself instead of splitting
the mirrored disks.


10 points to any good answer.
Thank you
Gino

[A. Clay Stephenson]

You are probably being a bit too cautious - and I tend to be rather paranoid. Remember, you have the vmunix.prev so that it's easy to boot the old kernel and run swremove if needed. There is no need to be afraid to load patches; the overwhelming majority of them load with absolutely no problems and tape drive related patches should not be a killer.

If you really are unsure then split the mirror but in this case, I wouldn't bother.

[Gino Castoldi_2]

Hi,

Here is the list of patches that HP recommends. Installing the stape patches by themselves doesn't seem like it would have issues, it's the dependencies
that concern us. We also run this server in an MC/SG environment with ITO5.3/OFO 8.0.6 so I just want to make sure that we'll be ok.

PS. Will splitting the mirrors
be a big deal? I'm not an HPUX
Admin by trade. (I'll assign
the points in a minute, just waiting to see everyone'e advice/opinion).

PHKL_18543 s700_800 11.00 PM/VM/UFS/async/scsi/io/DMAPI/JFS/perf patch
PHKL_28216 s700_800 11.00 SCSI Tape (stape) cumulative
PHKL_28496 s700_800 11.00 SCSI IO Subsystem Cumulative Patch
PHCO_25424 s700_800 11.00 cumulative fbackup(1M)/frecover(1M) patch

10 points to any good answer.
Thank you
Gino

[Helen French]

Again, you can safely install the stape patches which is recommended by HP and install the tape drive. I wouldn't worry about splitting the mirror, if you are not *very familiar* with the process. Once that is installed and the tape drive working properly, install pax patches and start taking backups.

[Tom Danzig]

CAUTION:

Be ablsolutely certain that patch PHKL_18543 is not already on your system. DO NOT force the re-installation of this patch. Most likely if your anywhere near current in you patch level, you already have it.

[Tom Danzig]

CAUTION:

Be absolutely certain that patch PHKL_18543 is not already on your system. DO NOT force the re-installation of this patch. Most likely if your anywhere near current in you patch level, you already have it.

[Gino Castoldi_2]

Hi,

Tom:
I checked and we already have the patch PHKL_18453 installed
so we will not be installing it again when we patch the system. We won't re-install it.

10 points to any good answer.
Thank you
Gino

[S.K. Chan]

You're only installing a few patches, not a major patch bundle installation plus these patches the you mentioned are generally "trouble-free" (from my experience so far). So I would just make sure I have the most recent ignite tape, that all really.

[A. Clay Stephenson]

I don't see any problem with loading all of these. If this were me, I would load all of these patches into a depot and install them in one shot. That will leave you with a known good /stand/vmunix.prev to boot from in case the world explodes. You can then run swremove to remove the bad patches. You thus have a way out and there is no compelling need to do lvsplits.


Probably the easist method to creade a software depot is to use SAM. It has an option to "Copy Software to Depot" which can be used to make a new depot. You then start swinstall, and mark all your patches, and install.

Remeber, typically a patch bundle (e.g. GoldQPK) loads hundreds of patches and probably 99% of the time, they load without incident. The typical problems occur when: 1) disk space is barely adequate 2) special instructions (listed in the install notes) are not followed. 3) Incompatible software is installed (I've actually seen 10.20 kernel; patches applied to an 11.0 box) (you have to override switches for this) and the admin couldn't understand
why that didn't fix his problem - not to mention allow the box to boot.

[Pete Randall]

Gino,

Check the other patches to see if they've already been installed as well. Download the pax patch that you're going to need for Ignite. Then use swcopy or SAM to copy the ones that you do need to install into a depot and apply them all at once. You should be fine. If you're really nervous about this, you could break the mirror, but, as others have stated, I hardly think it's necessary in this case.


Pete

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Gino:

Before you apply a new set of patches, commit the existing ones to provide a clean basis to which you can return to a prior state:

# swmodify -x patch_commit=true \*

Having done this, if it becomes necessary to remove any of the new patches you plan to add, 'swremove' not remove any of the committed ones.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Tim Sanko]

Gino,

First of all, this is so common that the process is full proof. So Relax.

Load the tape patches first. Make sure the tape drive works with tar, etc.

Load the Pax patch bundle, and the IgniteUX.

Make sure you have enough room for the bundles by doing the analysis first.

Be patient and calm, this is a simple procedure.

Tim

[Gino Castoldi_2]

Hi,

James:
Is it necessary to commit
existing patches if we need
to remove all of the new ones that we have installed?

PS. sorry I didn't assign ten points before, I clicked too
soon.

10 points to good answer.
Thank you
Gino

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Gino:

It is *recommended* to commit patches that exist on a system *before* applying another large set. If you don't perform the commit, it is possible to inadvertantly remove patches present from a previous installation if you backout patches.

A good time to perform this operation is immediately before the application of a large patch bundle (e.g. SupportPlus), after a good "burn-in" period during which you gain the confidence that the patch(es) will not need to be removed.

It is also *recommended* that *before* doing this mass commit, that you make an Ignite recovery tape. In reality, this good insurance, any time your are going to make major modifications to your OS environment.

Regards!

...JRF...

[John Meissner]

I would recommend to do a

make_tape_recovery -Av

prior to doing this. This way all the data on your internal disks will be backed up and you will have a complete and excellent fallback plan. all you need to do, should something go wrong, is boot off the tape and wham.... all back to pre-messed up status.