Disaster recovery

[SAM_24]

Hi,

We are doing DR and need to clone number of systems at remote location. We are thinking to use recovery archives or golden image per system basis.

For golden image if command line parameter CLEAN LEVEL is set to 1 it don't remove any file(s). Is it correct? If yes can I say golden image is same as recovery archive. We don't want to do file(s) removal.

My requirement is System A should be cloned at remote location as same. What is the suggested method? To use recovery archive or golden image?

Thanks.

[Tom Geudens]

Hi,
1. On "Recovery Archives"
We have the same DR-setup and use "recovery archives" for this purpose. Servers in location A are "Ignited" on an Ignite Master in location B and vice versa. We also have boothelpers in each location (subnets are likely to differ between the two locations). This has been tested several several times and it works perfectly. For "serverdisasters" we have (what we call) "Rolling Recovery"-servers. By that we mean we have a couple of spare L-servers (on wheels, thus the "Rolling") that are used for testing purposes, but in case a server physically crashes, can take the place of that server (again by using the "recovery archive").
2. On "Golden Images"
I've got no experience with those ... so I can't help you there.

Regards,
Tom

[Alan Nicholson]

Golden images are really intended for when you are building a number of servers which are almost identical.

Recovery images are intended to allow you to recover the server as an exact copy, so you will be better off using this for DR.

I would suggest using make_recovery -Ai to backup all of vg00 and create an interactive recovery image (in case you want to change an IP address or somthing during recovery).

We create recovery tapes about once every six months (pretty stable system) or when something significant changes as part of our DR solution and it works pretty well.

You also need to bear in mind that make_recovery *will not* backup any non-root volume groups, so these tapes will only get you to a position where you can restore from your last backup. Also, the recovered system will not re-create any mirrors (if you have them), so you will need to re-mirror once you have recovered.

[Denise Kent]

make_tape_recovery is the best solution here. From the man page:


The make_tape_recovery tool creates a system recovery archive and stores the archive on a local tape. make_tape_recovery is capable of
creating system recovery tapes for all DDS and DLT tape devices, with the ability to span multiple tapes. The archive created by make_tape_recovery is specific to the system it was created for and its identity includes hostname, ip_address, networking information,
etc. In the event of a root disk failure, the recovery archive can be installed via tape to restore the system.

Use this command to back up vg00:

"make_tape_recovery -AIv -x inc_entire=vg00"

Regards
Denise