How to restore if ignite is unavilable...

[Shrikant Lavhate]

Hi HP gurus,

This is quite insane asking this question but because of some reasons I am not able to get Ignite backup of system. So, my query is "Is there any way to restore system as before if we dont have Ignite backup? " . I have whole data bakup with me on tape. Is there any way or utility working similar to Ignite thing??

Thanks in advance.

[F Verschuren]

ignite is a bootble backup. if you do not have one you need to reinstall the server and than a recovery
in therory you can boot from cd, and restore you tape to a other bootbele disk, rename it to vg00, and hope.

I never tryed this but in theory it can work....

[Shrikant Lavhate]

Thanks for quick reply. I very much know that ignite is boot kinda backup. But what I actually need is to up the system as it was before going down. Like I need all system configuration as before. Installing new OS will need all configuration to do it manually. Any other comments???

[Mike Shilladay]

Hi Shrikant,

It can be done although it is not for the faint hearted. Basically if you are recovering to a replacment disk, you will need to get a miminal OS on there. Then from single user mode you will then need to forcably overwrite the OS with everything from your backup tape. Finally you will need to import the volume groups back in (should you have any other volume groups).

Have not done this since HP-UX 10.10, but it believe that the fundamentals should still work.

Mike.

[Shrikant Lavhate]

Mike,

>you will then need to forcably overwrite the OS with everything from your backup tape.

What do mean by that???
because I have only DATA backup on tape. No backup of VG00 is with me. Only backup of Other volume group other than VG00 is available.

[Torsten.]

>> I have whole data bakup with me on tape

What does this mean ("as before")? What command was used to do the backup?
What did you lost?
Without ignite backup, what do you think to restore?

[Shrikant Lavhate]

Torsten,

Data backup -> Backup of all volume groups other than VG00

command used -> Simple fbackup

lost -> Server is up and running. I dont have Ignite backup. Thats why if things goes wrong in future then what way I can have to restore it back?

[F Verschuren]

hi going back in time is not posble, whitout a backup,
if the question is a action you are plainning you can use mirroring, if you split of a mirror you have a copy on disk where you can boot from...

[Torsten.]

If you don't have a backup you need to create one.

Go to http://software.hp.com and locate ignite and install.

Another resource for information is

http://docs.hp.com/en/IUX

Without a backup you cannot restore anything.

[Mike Shilladay]

Hi Shrikant,

I meant that you would need to overwrite the "new OS" with what was on your backup tape, but from your reply it appears that you do not have anything from VG00, (i.e. /, /stand, /usr, /opt, var, /tmp, and /home) on your backup tape.

Do you only need the data back on disk (for reference puposes), or do you need to recover a specific machine with customisations the run a product (eg Oracle server with data)? If it is the latter, without any backup of the OS I think even the olympian members will be stumped.

Mike

[Mike Shilladay]

Hi Shrikant,

Appear to have our wires crossed. Based on your reply to Torsten, you need to make or modify your backup.

Ignite is the best for the OS, as for the data, it depends on what your data is. If you have an database open and you want to continue to use fbackup, then it would be recommended to stop the database.

Backups are highly specific to the server and there are many options, some of which are free, some cost money.

It is probably a good idea to get an fbackup of the OS at the time of backup, because it can come in handy if you need to recover a single file. (this can be done in ignite, but is a little more tricky) if the backup window allows it.

Mike.

[Sandy Chen]

Hi Shrikant,

Do you have any application installed under vg00?

If yes -> not possible to restore
If not -> then perhaps you can restore your server.

But it's not gonna be easy, a collect configuration from cfg2html/nickel could be very useful in case of that. Just install the OS from CD, install same level of patch bundle you have, apply same kernel parameter, import your data/application VG if possible, if not then re-create the VG and then restore that from your backup.

Regards,
Sandy

[Bill Hassell]

If you lose the vg00 disk(s), then you CANNOT restore anything to your system. It does not matter what method you used to backup your vg00 files (tar, cpio, fbackup, etc), none of those tapes will be readable by your processor ROMs. You must have a running operating system to make these commands work. If vg00 is lost, then your system and all your backups are useless.

There is no substitute for Ignite/UX. Yes, you *MUST* mirror your vg00 disks and this will prevent a bad disk from stopping your system. But mirroring will not recover from dumb root mistakes such as rm -r * or chown/chmod -R. Both mirror disks will have the same mistakes.

Now you can make a triple mirror backup of your system by adding more disk(s) to vg00. To make a backup, you extend all the vg00 lvols to the 2nd mirror and once complete, quiesce the system for a few seconds while you run sync 3-4 times and then reduce the mirror count back to 1. Then when a disaster strikes, your 2nd mirror becomes your new vg00. It's a lot of work and will require a lot of testing and rehearsal to make it work reliably.

Or you can post the errors/reasons why Ignite is failing. If Ignite is reporting errors, this is a good thing...it means your system is likely needing some repair.

[Shrikant Lavhate]

Bill,

For Ignite I already posted some threads and didn't worked out good. Thing is that when I run Ignite backup it going up to save_config and after it hangs. Thread about this save_config issue is here:
http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1180861

Your comments are appreciated.

System running HPUX-11.00 and running Ignite-UX-11-00 C.7.2.94 (latest for hpux11.00).

[Torsten. · Accepted solution]

Until your ignite problem is solved (many good suggestions in your other thread), you can consider to make a fbackup of the vg00.

In case of emergency you can cold install a system from scratch and restore the vg00 from this backup.
This takes longer than an ignite, but works too.

[Shrikant Lavhate]

Torsten, looks good your last suggestion...

Thanks all for your help and valuable replies.

[Torsten.]

Another suggestion (needs a downtime):

If you have the disks mirrored and another spare disk - shutdown the system and take one disk out (this is your backup).

Install the new spare disk and proceed just like when you replace a bad disk (vgcfgrestore, mkboot ...).

If you are deep in trouble, you can take out the boot disk and use the "backup" disk to boot the "backup".

Anyway, you should solve the ignite problem and use ignite - that's the best solution.

[Shrikant Lavhate]

Yes, i know boot mirror kinda stuff. Any ways thanks a lot!