make_net_recovery -> to tape

[Donny Jekels]

I am not sure if this has been done, or if it can be done.

great now we can create a system image to a network share instead of to tape only.

is there a method, and yes I have read over 500 pages looking for this feature.

whereby you can take the bootable image from the NFS share (disk) and send to a tape? bootable tape??

no links please, I've been to all of them.

[Con O'Kelly]

Hi Donny

I've been wondering the exact same thing myself. I know you've probably gone through the Ignite-UX Admin guide, howvever Chp 11 - System Recovery has a section on "Create a Bootable Archive Tape via the network" which may help you.
I haven't had a chance to look at this or test it.

HTH
Cheers
Con

[Patrick Wallek]

Have a look at the document at /opt/ignite/share/doc/makenetrec.txt file. There are instructions in there to do exactly what you want to do. The section you want is "Creating a Bootable Archive Tape".

[Sridhar Bhaskarla]

Hi,

The documentation is in your system. Look at /opt/ignite/share/doc/makenetrec.txt file. There are basically two steps to create a make_tape_recovery tape using the net_recovery image. 1) Write boot area (LIF) and 2) Write contents of the image. Both are explained in that document.

-Sri

[Donny Jekels]

309 Creating a Bootable Archive Tape
310 ================================
311
312 The following instructions explain how to create a self-contained
313 recovery tape for a recovery configuration already stored on an Ignite-UX
314 server via network system recovery (see make_net_recovery(1m)). It is
315 important that the archive fit onto a single tape.
316
317 Throughout these instructions, the following assumptions are made:
318
319 - The hostname of the machine the archive was created for is "sys1".
320 - The archive was created at "1999-03-12,09:00".
321 - The archive will fit onto a single tape.
322
323 There are only two steps required to build this tape:
324
325 - First, a LIF file must be constructed. It will contain the
326 Ignite-UX tools and environment, the config files produced for the
327 recovery archive, and the scripts used during recovery. The LIF is
328 produced via the make_medialif command.
329
330 - Second, the LIF and the archive itself must be written to a tape.
331
332
333 Step 1 - Build the LIF
334 ----------------------
335
336 First, use make_medialif to build the LIF file:
337
338 cd /var/opt/ignite/clients/sys1/recovery/1999-03-12,09:00
339 /opt/ignite/bin/make_medialif 340 -f system_cfg -f control_cfg -f archive_cfg 341 -C "1999-03-12,09:00 sys1 recovery image" 342 -l /var/tmp/my_lif -a -r
342 -l /var/tmp/my_lif -a -r
343
344 Replace with the "uname -r" value on the machine where the
345 archive was created. You can also get this value by looking at
346 the "release" keyword contained in the system_cfg file.
347
348
349 Now modify the LIF file to set it up for use on the tape:
350
351 /opt/ignite/bin/instl_adm -d -F /var/tmp/my_lif > /var/tmp/cfg
352
353 Edit the /var/tmp/cfg file and add the following lines to the end of
354 the file:
355
356 control_from_server=FALSE
357 run_ui=TRUE
358
359
360 OR, if you just want the recovery to proceed without any interaction, make
361 run_ui FALSE and specify to allow warnings, as in the following:
362
363 control_from_server=FALSE
364 run_ui=FALSE
365 env_vars += "INST_ALLOW_WARNINGS=10"
366
367 Then, issue the following command:
368
369 /opt/ignite/bin/instl_adm -F /var/tmp/my_lif -f /var/tmp/cfg
370
371
372 Step 2 - Write the tape
373 -----------------------
374
375 First, figure out which tape device file you can use to write the tape.
376 The device file must match the tape drive type you will use when
377 actually recovering the system. For example, a tape created with a
378 DDS-1/no compression device file will work in any DDS drive. Also, the
379 tape device file must be the no-rewind type. For the rest of this
380 example, assume that /dev/rmt/c1t0d0DDS1n is a no-rewind DDS-1/no
381 compression device file.
382
383 Now it's just a matter of rewinding the tape, writing out the
384 LIF, writing out the archive and then rewinding again:
385
386 mt -t /dev/rmt/c1t0d0DDS1n rew
387 dd if=/var/tmp/my_lif of=/dev/rmt/c1t0d0DDS1n obs=2k
388 dd if=/var/opt/ignite/recovery/archives/sys1/1999-03-12,09:00
389 of=/dev/rmt/c1t0d0DDS1n obs=10k
390 mt -t /dev/rmt/c1t0d0DDS1n rew
391
392 In this example, the archive is retrieved from the standard location on
393 the Ignite-UX server for this host. If you have chosen to put the
394 archive elsewhere, refer to that location instead.

[Donny Jekels]

thanks, I added the instructions in the thread for other's to use.

Although I have not had a chance to test it.

will update the thread of my findings.

peace
Donny

[Kevin_31]

I make a "golden image" which I store on my network just fine. The command is "make_sys_image" It's our accepted procedure for building new servers.

I'm also looking into "make_net_recovery" which a colleague seemed to use just fine.

I'm amazed that so many folks (admins as well as HP engineers) assume I use recovery tapes. I think tapes are a pain!