make_tape_recovery and VxVM

[Marco Santerre]

Hello all,

I got a small problem. I'm new to VxVM and unfortunately, don't have a lot of time in front of me to make something work.

I have to do a DR Test with one machine that has been set up with VxVM by consultants (which are now gone naturally). I do understand that make_tape_recovery does work fine with VxVM and as expected I didn't have any trouble slapping on the tape in the new machine and booting up with it.

Problem is, after the make_tape_recovery is done, and the machine reboots, it stops at the bcheckrc prompt. I can mount all my rootdg. But basically, I don't know what else to do anymore being that I'm not as learned in VxVM as I am in LVM.

Thanks in advance for all/any responses.

[Murgesh_2]

HI

I used
#make_tape_recovery -C -A

it will run fine.

Enjoy
Murgesh

[Jeff Schussele]

Hi Marco,

This is one of the problems with Ignite & VxVM.
The reason it stops at bcheckrc is that the system cannot activate the VxVM DGs or mount the VxVM LVs - they simply are not there on the new system. What I do is edit the fstab file & comment out (or remove) all the DGs that are not available to the new host. Then you *could* go out & remove all the DG devices in /dev/vx & track down all the other VxVM info that defines the other system. But for me it's just easier to reinstall the VxVM product & start fresh.
You run into the same problems with LVM when Igniting another system, they're just much easier to handle than VxVM.

HTH,
Jeff

[Marco Santerre]

Hi Jeff,

Another question because I've been reading a little bit and trying things out a bit

In this particular case : the name of my server is different, I read something about volboot, what's the impact?

Moreover, because I'm recovering on a server which I'll never know in advance what its host ID is, is there a Veritas temporary license available for people to use, sorta like a 10-day trial key?

[Jeff Schussele · Accepted solution]

Yep, there is a file, /etc/vx/volboot, that contains a key - hostid - whose value needs to be the hostname. And using Ignite it will remain the "old" hostname
Reinstalling VxVM will set the proper value however.
This is why I like to just reload as there are other files out there that would need to be set for proper operation & I've done it, but it takes quite a while & you run the risk of missing one.

And yes, you can get a temp license from Veritas. Contact your local Veritas Rep & they should be willing to let you have one. It's a 32 position lexigraphical key that looks something like
XXX4-XXXX-XX5X-X5X5-XXXX-X5X5-XX
and it will give you 60 days. There's even a 30 day extension to that available. Use the
vxlicrep
command to view Vx licenses including expiration dates.

Rgds,
Jeff

[Marco Santerre]

Thanks again Jeff,

Again bare with me please.. I know I'm a pain.. but when you say reinstalling VxVM, what does it imply exactly?

[Jeff Schussele]

Basically you just swinstall the Base-VXVM product from the App1 CD & IF you have purchased the full-blown VxVM, the B9116AA product as well. But that needs a codeword to appear in the list.
Remember that the Base-VXVM will need the Reinstall Filesets & Reinstall Files options set to overwrite the files. And you may need to unset Enforce Dependencies to completely reinstall.

Rgds,
Jeff