DR recovery

[khilari]

Hi guys, I wanted to ask about ignite image. Like lets say I have 3 volume groups. Vg00,vg01 and vg02 on a particular server. Now, when I take an ignite tape I only use –x inc_entire=vg00. Now, when I am restoring my server alongwith vg01 and vg02. How will I do it. Lets say it is a DR drill. They give me a disk array to restore the other vg’s. But I only have mad etape with vg00.
When I am restoring from the tape I will get the option through ignite to put in its ipaddress and all those options but how will I get the other vg’s back. I am taking backups. Will the backups also have the vg configuration?. How will I get a successful restore?

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

Yes, the Ignite backup will contain the necessary information (map files in '/etc/lvm/conf') for you to 'vgimport' your non-vg00 volume groups.

Regards!

...JRF...

[A. Clay Stephenson]

There is no cookie-cutter answer to your question. Probably the most flexible solution to your problem is to choose a directory that is in vg00 that contains your configuration data. On my systems, I use /root/config for this and it contains the output of vgdisplays for all VG's, ioscan output, bdf's, network configuration, and anything else I might need. I depend upon Ignite to restore vg00 and then use the data or scripts in /root/config to build the new VG's and do any additional configuarion. From that point, the normal restore process (in my case Data Protector) takes over.

Every DR scenario is different so you are going to have to develop procedures that fit your environment. There is even a danger to using Ignite in that your replacement hardware may be so dissimilar that an Ignite recovery is very difficult so test, test, and test some more.

[DCE]

If you are recovering a system attached to disks with existing data:
assuming you ran a vgcfgbackup prior to the ignite image
restore the ignite image
import the vg's and data using vgcfgrestore

If you are restoring to a completely new system and disk:
run the ignite restore
manually recreate all of the additional vg's, lvols and mount points from documentation (or scripts, if you collected the appropriate info ahead of time)
run the restore program for the app used to backup vg01 and vg02.

[Khashru]

I have done the DR in the following steps.

create a maketape of entire vg00. when you restore it it will have other vg's like vg01 and vg01. You need to create the pvs from new disks. if you have the same size and cxtxdx number then it will automatically have the vg's.

create a script that will make this pvs during DR and test.

[Rasheed Tamton · Accepted solution]

It should work as Khashru pointed out.

But to make things easy it is good to do as below:
1. Create a temporary â /confbackupâ (in root) and place output files of the below:
2. Make a copy of /etc/lvmtab
3. Create backup configuration for EACH VGs
â ¢ #vgcfgbackup
4. Create map files from all existing volume groups
â ¢ #vgexport -s -v -p -m .map /dev/ (use a for-do-done script)
5. Create a list of all VGs as a backup of LVM configuration
â ¢ #vgdisplay â v > lvmbackupORIG
6. Create a list of all LVs for each VGs using a for-do-done script
7. Obtain and save a copy of the system disk structure
â ¢ # ioscan â fnC disk > ioscandisk.txt
8. Create a backup of minor numbers
â ¢ # ll /dev/*/group >> minors.txt

Also see man vgchgid (depends on your BC/BCV setup - at times you might need it)

If you have get_config/cfg2html; output it to the /confbackup dir.

If things are not working as expected, then you have one single location for all config information.

You are talking about backup. Don't you have BC/BCV. Backups will have your data and if your VGconfigs are OK you will get a successful restore.

As Clay said it is only test - test - test ....

[Rita C Workman]

Having done DR via our own DR site and now via using another site's hardware, I must repeat what Clay's wisdom. You need to document your systems. Then you need to map out how to do YOUR systems and test,test,test.

Boxes may not be ignite compatible. Just how much is the rental shop giving you and what hardware is it. How is the disk presented (SAN/fiber or is it Host-Based, or is it just cheap JBOD). If it's SAN attached who maps/masks or just plain slices up the disk.

If boxes are compatible, ignite will get you back vg00, provided your tapes were good. Do you have something in place to store ignite tapes (not to mention your data backup tapes) so they will be there for you in DR? Are those tapes always current? Subscription DR is a whole 'nother set of skills.

Sit down and try to imagine you have nothing but yourself and some tapes. What could you do...what do you have...what do you need. How well do you know your boxes ?

I didn't give you a checklist of run the following commands. Because first you need to fully grasp the concept and demands of doing DR this way. Before concerning yourself with restoring a vg, concern yourself with seeing the whole picture of restoring your entire HPUX Environment.

Just my 2 cents,
Rgrds,
Rita