Creating Recovery Tape Image on Ignite Server, not Client

[Craig Johnson_1]

I have created a network image of a client which resides on the Ignite server in /.../images/hostname... There is no tape drive on the client. How can I use this image to create a tape on the Ignite server itself, which has multiple tape drives?

[IT_2007]

If Ignite server and client to build is on same subnet then you can push from Ignite server or pull from client.

Pull Method from client:

reboot client and stop at BCH.

BCH:> bo lan.

Push method from Ignite:

Launch Ignite GUI on Ignite server and then select to boot client, remember that client should be available up and running on the network.

[Craig Johnson_1]

That isn't what I'm asking. I know how to do that. I want to create a bootable, installable tape from the image I've already captured, using a system other than the one the image came from, so I don't have to move tape drives around.

This should be simple enough, but how?

[IT_2007]

ok. This way you can create bootable tape from the image.

http://docs.hp.com/en/B2355-90997/ch10s02.html

[Patrick Wallek]

This is covered in the "Ignite/UX Administration Guide":

http://www.docs.hp.com/en/B2355-90997/index.html

Have a look at "Chapter 10 - Creating Your Own Installation Media" and the section on "Building an Installation Tape":

http://www.docs.hp.com/en/B2355-90997/ch10s02.html

[Craig Johnson_1]

Why is there no way to do it simply from the Ignite server using Ignite?

Isn't that what the product is for?

[Craig Johnson_1]

I cannot get past the first step in those directions where it refers to /var/tmp/depot. What is that supposed to be?

I have an image and I have collected the client configuration using Ignite.

Would the simplest way to do this be to attach a tape drive to the client and then use Ignite to "Create Tape Recovery Archive"?

Will that give me a tape I can clone the system with?

[IT_2007]

1st Step:

make_config -s /var/tmp/depot -c /var/tmp/depot_cfg

You need to specify source depot on Ignite server and then you can chose destination to /tmp also.

2nd Step: Edit above file and then go to 4th step in the doc.

[Craig Johnson_1]

I guess I don't understand what is meant by "source depot" on the Ignite server.

The client I want to clone has been built from several sources, DVD, CD, Internet, etc. There is no "depot" that contains everything the client has installed. I would think this would be contained in the image?

[IT_2007]

Then skip steps 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Start from Step 5.

[IT_2007]

Ok. Here is summarization from the doc.

make_medialif -f /opt/ignite/data/Rel_B.11.11/config \ -f /var/tmp/myOSarchive.cfg -f /var/tmp/depot_cfg \ -l /var/tmp/lifvol -r B.11.11

To set run_ui and control_from_server variables using instl_adm to TRUE and FALSE, execute the following steps:

Create a temporary configuration file, enter:

instl_adm -d -F /var/tmp/lifvol > /var/tmp/cfg

Open /var/tmp/cfg for editing.

Add or change the run_ui variable.

For an interactive installation, set run_ui=TRUE. For a noninteractive installation, set run_ui=FALSE.

When run_ui is false, no interaction occurs and the installation proceeds according to all the configuration information provided to Ignite-UX.

Add or change the control_from_server variable.

To control the installation from the Ignite-UX server, set control_from_server=TRUE. An attempt is made to contact the server.

Check the syntax of your changes to avoid writing errors to the installation file system, enter:

instl_adm -T -f /var/tmp/cfg

Write the modified temporary configuration file into the LIF volume, enter:

instl_adm -F /var/tmp/lifvol -f /var/tmp/cfg

Verify your changes, enter:

instl_adm -d -f /var/tmp/lifvol


mt -t /dev/rmt/c0t3d0DDS1n rew
dd if=/var/tmp/lifvol of=/dev/rmt/c0t3d0DDS1n obs=2k
dd if=/var/tmp/myOSarchive.gz of=/dev/rmt/c0t3d0DDS1n obs=10k
mt -t /dev/rmt/c0t3d0DDS1n rew

[Craig Johnson_1]

OK, so where does the myS0archive.gz come from?

My images as created by Ignite look more like 2006-10-07,21:30.

Any idea if these are gzipped tar format already?

The directions don't seem to match up with a fairly typical Ignite installation.

[Craig Johnson_1]

My images have all been created with "make_net_recovery.sh" FYI. Thanks.

[Sameer_Nirmal · Accepted solution]

Refer the document attached where you would find a procedure to create a bootable recovery tape using "make_net_recovery" archive.

I guess you were looking to have such option within Ignite-UX server funcationality ( GUI or one step command) I do agree with you as I think this would make the task simplified instead of following those steps.

I guess adding such features would make the IG-UX product more versatile.

[Craig Johnson_1]

That is what I was looking for (I think, I haven't tested it yet).

Nobody ever answered my question about simply attaching a tape drive to the client in question. Would that create basically the same thing as above if I then ran a "Create Tape Recovery Archive" from the Ignite server?

[Sameer_Nirmal]

Yes, both ways achieves the same task.

The only differnce is in one case you are creating the tape archive from the client with tape drive attachedand in other case you are creating the tape archive of the client from the IG-UX server with tape drive attached.

[Craig Johnson_1]

OK, I tried it using the server to create a tape remotely on the client, then installed from that onto another box. It didn't work - I got very little of what I expected to be installed. So, I am trying the instructions as stated above to manually create a tape.

One thing, on our setup, the net_recovery images are stored in .../images/hostname... rather than in /var/opt/ignite/recovery/archives/... The images in .../images are huge, while a few that for whatever reason got put in the latter are quite tiny. I am going to use the one from .../images... when creating the tape. Hopefully this works better.