Is Ignite the only DRP solution for Itanium-based HP-UX?

[Mikhail Fedotov]

Currently we are migrating from Tru64 to Itanium HP-UX. We use Ignite to create DR tapes. It was OK on Tru64, but it's not that good on Itanium.

The issues we encountered were the following:
- We were not able to read the tape contents with tar command. At first we tried mt -f fsf 1, then we were told to use mt fsf 22, both didn't work until we upgraded Ignite to the latest version.
- It's not possible to boot from the tape, so the recovery process using CD-ROM gets much more complicated (and you should create a matching bootable CD-ROM for each Ignite version)
- The poor tape writing speed. We found out that this is related to low block size setting used by pax. To prove the point I added -b 32256 parameter to pax command in make_sys_image, and the backup speed increased 4 times. Unfortunately, such change would not be supported by HP, and it may affect restoratin process (we have no resources to test the recovery process at the moment).

Regarding all of the issues above, we are frustrated a bit. I am wondering if Ignite is the only solution to create a disaster recovery media? Are there any alternative products? What do you, Itanium admins, use for DR?

Best regards,
Mike Fedotov

[Torsten.]

Why not using ignite server and backup via LAN?

[Rick Garland]

Doing Ignites on ia64 systems is a bit different. I believe the better way is to use an Ignite Server instead of tapes.

Using an Ignite Server has its own cavaets as well. Example, versions of Ignite must be the same across all systems & it should be greater the 6.x

Use the same subnet

An ia64 system needs to be the Ignite server as well.

This is some of the info

[Mikhail Fedotov]

The disaster recovery process should provide for off-site recovery, so LAN backup is not a solution...

[Christian Tremblay]

Using recovery tapes is the poor man's DR.

The best DR is to have another server at your remote site in a service guard cluster and having your data replicated in a second SAN frame through SRDF for EMC frames or Continuous Access for HP frames.

Then in case of a disaster, you can automatically be up and running at your DR site in a matter of a few minutes.

Of course, this costs a lot of money. :-(

[Torsten.]

If you are using a fast tape drive, the backup process will be fast too. I recently backed up the vg00 in less than 10 minutes on an SAN connected LTO. Of course, you have to do the "2 step" recovery using the install DVD first in order to be able to access the tape.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom Mike,

The first issue seems to be that the tape device is not what Ignite expects it to be. The best solution is to do an Instance renumber so that the tape drive is what Ignite expects it.

As far as pax speed goes, I'd be comfortable after a few successful DR tests with your speed enhancement. You may wish to suggest it to HP for a future version of Ignite.

Now the bad news. To DR Itanium servers, you need Itantium Servers. Even though HP-UX 11.23 runs on both PA-RISC and Itanium boxes, vendors like Oracle provide different software for the different CPU.

If you are fortunate and all your apps run with the same installation on either CPU would could consider using PA-RISC for DR boxes.

Here is why you DONT want to do that. HP is in the process or releasing its last PA-RISC chips. Though the boxes will be supported until at least 2013, the last PA-RISC OS is coming out this year. HP is cleary in words and action moving away from PA-RISC and I'd be wary about any investment in them.

The best bet is to go to the latest Ignite, get your tape driver name issues resolved and see about speeding up that backup. Make sure the tape drive is the ONLY device on the SCSI chain and that there is no interference with its data traffic.

SEP

[Ken Grabowski]

Mikhail,

The LAN Ignite server is not out of the question. You use it to create your network based IA images. You then create an Ignite tape of the ignite server. Remeber Ignite can backup more than vg00 now.

In off site recovery, you recover the ignite server first, then boot and ignite all the other servers. You probable have a mangement system running your backups now that will have to be recovered at the start of an off site session. If that is HP-UX IA you can put them both on the same system.