How to test ignite media without restore?

[Chotiwit Jiratrakarnkit]

Hi All,

I've backup HP-UX system with schedule backup.
But need to test ignite media with out restore.

Can I have any command or step to test it?

Thank you.

[Pete Randall]

It's really just a tar archive with boot headers on the front. Skip over the boot headers with "mt fsf 1" (specify your tape drive, if necessary). Then simply do a "tar -t" to see the contents. Other than really restoring, that's all you can do.


Pete

[Michal Kapalka (mikap)]

hi,

check_net_recovery

check_tape_recovery

this commands only compare running system and ignite image.

the best way is to try to restore it to some development or test server.

mikap

[Chotiwit Jiratrakarnkit]

Thank you for your answer...but in my environment we have many server to run HP-UX [~30] and have to operate for 24x7 ...we have backup task every week.
So it's hard to test restore every ignite media on every server and my customer will not accept to have downtime for only test restore..that why I need to verify ignite media without restore.

[Michal Kapalka (mikap)]

hi,

i know about what type of problem you are talking, to check the status of the image, you culd check it in the recovery log, if was done successfully / with warning / failed.

but if you like to bye 100% sure, you need to restore it on a server.

mikap

[Bill Hassell]

> So it's hard to test restore every ignite media on every server and my customer will not accept to have downtime for only test restore..that why I need to verify ignite media without restore.

You should use pax rather than tar to verify your media. Ignite actually uses pax to write the files but there is an option to use tar or pax format. pax can read either one. For a tape:

mt -f /dev/rmt/0mnb rewind
mt -f /dev/rmt/0mnb fsf 1
pax -vf /dev/rmt/0mnb

This will read the files stored following the bootable area. You can redirect this into a logfile for record keeping.