HP-UX Mirroring Disk (Clone a HDD into another HDD)

[abd.rahman]

Hi all,

I am new to HP-UX. I have B2600 machine which is running a very critical application. I would like to mirror it on other additional disk. Luckily, in the machine, there are 2 SCSI ports inside. All info i could find regarding mirroring was related to only using HP Software MirrorDisk/UX.

I have the Paul Randall steps in my bag. However, if I weren't wrong, unfortunately it should be used with MirrorUX since using -m switch.

Can anyone help me with the other way to do the HPUX disk cloning? Perhaps by using "DD command" step-by-step (I am not really understand what DD is using for) or creating an image in advance,save it into DVD, then extract it into the new HDD like we did GHOST image for Windows.

Appreciate much for any helps.

[A. Clay Stephenson · Accepted solution]

The best method is to mirror the boot disk using MirrorUX -- but you must purchase this product. That way a failed disk doesn't even stop the machine. The next fully supported method is to use IgniteUX to either create a make_tape_recovery image or make_net_recovery that saves a bootable image to an Ignite server. Do a search for IgniteUX and you should find all the documentation you need. The final (unsupported but still very good) method is the "lifeboat" approach. The idea is that you create an exact image of the boot disk. It is a dirty copy in that the filesystems are mounted but I've never had one of these to fail to boot. You need a disk at least as large as your current boot disk --- and preferably an identical model.

Let's suppose that your boot disk is /dev/rdsk/c0t6d0 and that your lifeboat disk is /dev/rdsk/c1t5d0.

dd if=/dev/rdsk/c0t6d0 bs=256k of=/dev/rdsk/c1t5d0

This will create a lifeboat. If you ever have to use the lifeboat, you remove the boot disk and insert the lifeboat disk in its place and possibly set jumpers to match the scsi id of the original boot disk. In any event, the lifeboat must now match the original address and hardware path so that it is /dev/dsk/c0t6d0 (or whatever the original boot device was). Ideally you create the lifeboat during a quiescent period. When the lifeboat is actually used, automatic fsck's are done on the filesystems.
Man dd for details.

I do this task on all of my boxes each weekend -- in addition to mirroring and making Ignite images. You should really think of lifeboats as a supplement to rather than a replacement for mirroring because lifeboats protect you from two things that mirrors do not: 1) Really, really bad patches 2) your own stupidity (rm -r *).

[abd.rahman]

I believe I have the IgniteUX doc which is incorporated with the purchased HP-UX CDs. However, it doesnt provide me a set of clear instruction the way to accomplish the backup process into another disk.

Base on your explaination, the best solution (for me) would be proceeding to the DD "lifeboat" option. I will test this within 15 minutes and see how.

Is there any command to finish the creating the "lifeboat" process?

[abd.rahman]

Dear ACS,

I did the process well. The result of the process is as below:

I/O Error.
34714+0 records in.
34713+1 records out.

After take out the original disk and replace with the mirrorred disk. The system work like a charm.

Many thanks for the ideas.

[abd.rahman]

Dear ACS,

I did the process well. The result of the process is as below:

I/O Error.
34714+0 records in.
34713+1 records out.

After take out the original disk 36Gb (HP) and replace with the mirrorred disk 9Gb (Compaq). The new disk system works like a charm.

Many thanks for the ideas.

[abd.rahman]

Yes, ACS did answer my requirement boldly.