full system backup on running system

[Rehak]

Hi

I'm looking for a full system backup solution for hpux 11.0 (K380 and L2000 servers) The Systems should be up and running during the backup.

Until now I switch the systems into single user mode and I use make_recovery and fbackup

The systems have 2 volume groups vg00 and vg01 and all disks are mirrored. Can I disable the morroring and backup the content of the spare disks, or is there a better solution?

Thanks in advance
Thomas

[John Carr_2]

Hi

you dont need to be in single user mode for the backups to be created.

John.

[Tom Geudens]

Hi,
If you're looking / allowed to look for a commercial solution, take a look at www.tivoli.com (Tivoli Storage Mananger) and www.veritas.com (Veritas Netbackup). Both products (we've tested them both) have full server backup options. I would however always combine this with an Ignite backup of the bootdisk.

I don't know if this kind of information is what you are looking for. If not, let me know.

Regards,
Tom Geudens

[Emiel van Grinsven]

Also it pretty much depends on what you have running on the systems. Do you have an oracle (or other) databse that's needs to have an on-line backup.
You can write scripts or use a comercial solution, it all depends on how much you want to spend.

Grt, Emiel

[Michael Tully]

Hi,

You don't need to be in single user-mode
to create a backup. There are many native
tools on your system that you could use,
this depending on the applications on your
system.

If your running some form of database it
may be an idea to close down the database
and then backup it up.

Do you use raw or cooked logical volume
partitions?

There are many 3rd party products, some
already mentioned. Personally we use
OmniBack and have a reasonable success
record with it.

You could as you stated split your mirror
and backup off your mirrored copy, using
fbackup, cpio and the like. To achive
something like this you would need to
have a look at the 'lvsplit' and 'lvmerge'
options (for memory) as part of the
standard LVM tools.

Food for thought
~Michael~

[Rehak]

Hi

fbackup of my systems takes up to 5h, I get consistency problems if I dont't switch to sigle user mode.

I would like to have a soluution to create a bootable medium, to recover the system as fast as possible, and I this should be possible on the running system. I think I have to disable mirroring and use these disks for backup.

If you need some more information please let me know.

Thank you
Thomas

[Emiel van Grinsven]

thomas,

use ignite (like you already do) for a bootable backup. I wouldn't bother with disabling the mirror since there are products available that will work fine.
Again, how much can you spend. Do you have someone to write (backup) scripts with dd and/or tar etcetera?
Do you need an on-line backup for a database of any form?

grt, Emiel

[Wim Rombauts]

If you use Ignite, there is no reason to take the system to singleuser mode.

Do you want to take this type of backup every day ? Then you could schedule an Ignite make_recovery every day with cron.
Maybe, it is OK to take this type of backup only now and then, when you make configuration changes (that is what I do). Then I use my every day commercial backup to have a daily update of my system.


In case of a disaster recovery, I will have to load the Ingite tape first (which includes the backup software executables and configuration), and the do a normal restore to update my system to the latest configuration.

[Rehak]

Hi

Thanks all of you, I will try with lvsplit and lvmearge

a nice day for all of you
Thomas

[Emiel van Grinsven]

take a look at this,

Note that the
specification of days can be made in two fields: monthday and weekday.
If both are specified in an entry, they are cumulative. For example,

0 0 1,15 * 1 command

runs command at midnight on the first and fifteenth of each month, as
well as every Monday.

hope it answers your problem,

grt, Emiel

[Emiel van Grinsven]

guess i need a patch ... or maybe just a can of coffee to stop me from posting on the wrong question :-)

[Rehak]

Hi Emiel

Thanks for helping, and don't drink too much coffee.. I think I will split the logical volumes and backup it this way.

regards
Thomas

[Emiel van Grinsven]

Hi rehak,

What if something happens that corupts your data while still mirrored? Than you wouldn't know for sure your data is restoreable also you need a way to get your OS back in case of full systems crash. Ignite will do that trick of course. What about your problem with fbackup, it's not really normal that it takes so much time to make a backup...

grt, Emiel