HPUX 11 O/S Full Backup?

[Peston Foong]

Dear all,

I have wonder how could I fully perform the operating system backup? My server using HPUX 11 64 bits. In which directory I should consider in at fully backup the directory like example /etc/passwd directory should be included because it contain all the user ID and password.

Reason that I want to perform O/S backup because of one day system will totally crash. Who know?

Here, I don't under which directories I should backup the data?

And, I don't what HPUX command is the best to use and the command for faster way to perform recovery also. My server using DDS tape to make the backup. Since HPUX has many command like fbackup, cpio, tar dump and so on. What is the best command to use?

Please help me for the issue above. All your help would be appreciated. Thank you so much.

[Patrick Wallek]

For a complete backup of the OS (vg00) on your server I recommend that you download and install HPs Ignite/UX product. You can get it at http://software.hp.com/products/IUX

Once this is installed, you will want to look at the command make_tape_recovery. This command will create a bootable tape that contains your entire vg00 volume group.

If your machine ever crashes, or you have a hard disk crash, or you have to rebuild your system for any reason, your just boot from the tape, you can make changes if you desire, and your system will be restored exactly like it was when you made the tape.

Ignite/UX is FREE from HP. It is a utility that no one should be without on their system.

[Peston Foong]

Hi, Patrick.

Thanks for you helped. What the difference between O/S full backup and make_recovery. Are they backup all the same data?

I know that HP's Ignite is one of the utility to make a O/S full backup but I would like to try to use HPUX command to perform the O/S full backup. Could I know under which directories are important for the system?

What are the HPUX commands are the best to use for the O/S full backup?

Thank you in advance.

[Volker Borowski]

You can use SAM to make a complete backup of your system. It will call "fbackup" for which your can get more details with "man fbackup".

The problem is, after a complete system crash, you'll need to do an installation first and then do an "frecover" afterwards. There can be some pitfalls with this installation when you are under pressure in such a situation, so this may cost time.

It is easier to boot the ignite tape and relax...

By the way, you'll need this SAM/fbackup tape anyway, because you will need to backup your application and userdata as well, and after ignite restored your system, you'll need to restore the user-/application data in addition.

Volker

[f. halili]

you may use fbackup.
with fbackup you may use a graph file that will tell fbackup which filesystems and files to backup.

example: #fbackup -0 -u f /dev/dest -g /tmp/graph -d /tmp1/graph/date

- fnhalili

[boley janowski]

The following is something i just put together for some one else and thought you may want to see it too, yes the data on the make_recovery and fbackup of vg00 is the same, make_recovery has boot up infor that the fbackup does not, however to get the data off of a make_recovery selectively requires a little more work than from an fbackup of vg00, the make_recovery will save you countless hours if you have to completely restore the OS rather than booting from a CD and then going through the step to recover from an fbackup. You see they both have there advantages so haveing both is great but if one is on a bad tape you can still get what you need with the other, it's just a little more work, hope the following helps,

Good Luck



first i would install ignite, and run a

make_recovery -Ai

this will backup all of vg00 and allow you to boot off of that tape if you need too.

next i would run an fbackup on /vg00 only

bdf | grep vg00 | awk '{print $6}' > /tmp/graph
bdf | grep -v vg00 | grep -v Mounted | awk '{print $6}' >> /tmp/graph

vi /tmp/graph (for all vg00 put an i for all non vg00 put an e in front of each mount point eg..)

i /
i /home
i /var
e /vg01mountpoint
e /vg02mountpoint

save this

now run

fbackup -0 -g /tmp/graph -I /tmp/fb_log -f /dev/rmt/

=ioscan -funC tape (fbackup will choose /dev/rmt/0m by default, so you can leave -f /dev/rmt/ off first if your not sure and make sure there is activity on the drive after you start it)

after you do that, change all the "i" to "e" and vice versa in the /tmp/graph eg..

e /
e /home
e /var
i /vg01mountpoint
i /vg02mountpoint

now run the fbackup command

fbackup -0 -g /tmp/graph -I /tmp/fb_log2 -f /dev/rmt/

now you will have your:

vg00 tape
non vg00 tape
make_recovery tape (to recover a full OS if needed)

let us know if you need more detail, good luck, if your not sure about the tape device, put and ioscan -funC tape on the forum and some one will help you out.

Boley