fullbackup - OS backup

[navin]

Hi , Is there a difference between full backup on a HP system and OS backup using makerecovery.
Thanks Much.

[Juan M Leon]

I will say that full backup will backup all your system including all the applications running. The makerecovery creates a mirror copy of your bootable disk or VG (This case VG00).

I believe you need both of them. With a full backup you cannot restore it if you dont have a base OS running on the server, therefore you need a makerecovery. The make_recovery will restore the image to your bootable disk. After the system is up and running from the OS point you can restore the rest of you applications.
I hope it helps

[Patrick Wallek]

That depends on how you are doing the full backup and what you are including.

In my mind, when you FULL BACKUP you are backing up EVERYTHING on the server. All data, applications, etc.

A make_recovery, actually should be using make_tape_recovery, should be used for ONLY VG00. This creates a bootable tape that can be used in case you need to recover the OS on the server.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Navin:

Ignite is designed to archive operating system filesystems (defined as at least /, /stand, /usr, /opt, and /var). Given that these reside in vg00 (the boot disk), this means that a good recovery image is confined to vg00.

You can exclude or include other filesystems too beyond what is included in logical volumes on vg00.

A so-called "full-backup" cover all non-OS or application filesystems.

There is no substitute for having routine, Ignite make_tape_recovery archives of vg00.

Keeping your operating system and your application filesystems separated on separate volume groups means that you can easily (re)install an OS and simply (vg)import application volume groups. This makes OS upgrades quite simple.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Steven E. Protter]

Ignite make_tape_recovery can not do open database files for example.

its best at getting boot disk images that are usable and somewhat transferable.

Some full OS backup products like DP 5.x and Veritas can back up open databases.

SEP

[Leif Halvarsson_2]

Hi,
Ignite (make_tape_recovery) and "ordinary" backup tools (e.g. Data Protector) has different usage. Ignite is propritarity HP-UX system backup tool but, useless for other backup tasks. Data Protector is for user data/applications, it may be used for system backups but, not very convinient.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi (again) Navin:

I should add one point. While you want a bootable OS archive in the form of an Ignite recovery image, AND while you want to routinely create fresh ones of these, this STILL MEANS that your non-Ignite strategy needs to capture OS-related files that may change more frequently (e.g. your password database).

You need to think not only about "backup" but also about the use of the backup in a "recovery". The organization of a compliment of full, incremental and Ignite imsges is important in a disaster recovery.

Regards!

...JRF...

[navin]

Thanks All.That was very helpful.

[Fabio Ettore]

Hi,

I think the best method to backup the entire system is make_tape_recovery to archive vg00 and backup with other tools for other vg.

make_tape_recovery -x inc_entire=vg00 -v

This commands archives on tape LVM structure for system filesystems of vg00 + data on vg00 and the LVM structure for other volume groups. Then backup data of other filesystems than vg00 by fbackup, tar or Data Protector.

Summarizing:

- OS backup by make_tape_recovery (keep in mind that by now make_recovery is obsolete)

- full backup on a HP-UX system by other tools.

Hope this helps you.

Best regards,
Fabio

P.S.: navin, I often write about assigning of points because this forum has this great feature. This permits to thank the efforts of the people and also to know for future searches what post was better. Your score 54/246 is really terrible. Please assign points and thanks for your collaboration to respect this etiquette. Have fun!

[Rick Garland]

There had been discussions in the past about backups and the role of Ignite.

Ignite is NOT a backup tool.

Ignite makes a bootable image of the OS so you can quickly rebuild the OS on the same hardware or other hardware.

Doing a full backup (or an incremental) can be accomplished with various dedicated applications (omniback, veritas, syncsort, legato, etc) or through some of the tools provided with the OS (dump, vxdump, etc)

These system backups can keep track of what was done when, to what, and for how long. (I did a backup of the /home filesystem on so-so date and it has a retention time of 4 weeks)

Ignite does not keep records to this effect.

Doing restores from Ignite using the make_recovery command can wipe out a disk and reload the OS from when that Ignite was taken. To get to the files you will have to bypass the LIF info on the tape.

Applications do not have this requirement.

[navin]

Hi Thanks much for your valuable time and sharing tech info. One of the responder pointed out "make_recovery" is obsolete now.
I was able to use make_recovery with out an issue in early days but not now. And the server runs HP-UX 11.11. Is that means here afetr make_recovery does not work for this system.
Thanks

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

'make_recovery' is deprecated in favor of 'make_tape_recovery'. The latter is easy to use.

To create a tape archive for all of vg00, do:

# make_tape_recovery -x inc_entire=vg00 -I -v -a /dev/rmt/0mn

Don't confuse the '-i' option of the old 'make_recovery' with the '-i' option of its replacement, 'make_tape_recovery'. The '-I' option of 'make_tape_recovery' is the *same* as the '-i' option of 'make_recovery'. '-I' means cause the Ignite process to be interactive when booting from tape.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Matthew_50]

make_tape_recovery is use to replace/insteal make_recovery,

no matter make_recovery or make_tape_recovery is use to recover your base OS, full os backup is use to recover your metadata/application data.