New HP-UX Admin

[LostAdmin]

Hi, I have recently had two HP-UX servers dropped in my lap. The first is an HP900 rp7420 and the other an N Class N4000.

I have an AIX system administration background but no HP-UX skillset. I have been doing some checking out of the servers and appear to be set up less than optimally. Two of the most glaring items I am noticing is that there is no mirroring of the filesystems in what I call rootvg (vg00). Secondly, I do not appear to have access to a tape drive for either of the servers.

As far as I can tell from the guy who set these up, he is backing up the application data and moving a copy elsewhere. So at this point I am hoping that is okay.

I would be dishonest if I did not say tha I am more than a little concerned. In the AIX world I would be able to take a mksysb of rootvg (vg00) and save the mksysb image to disk. I could then copy that image off to CD or Tape. Is there anything I can do like that with HP-UX and make_recovery and/or ignite?

As I said, i am completely new to this OS and I am just looking to protect myself as quickly as possible. I am uncertain if I can talk management into needed hardware or what their plans are. Thanks in advance for any help advice.

My OS levels-
The rp7420:
HP-UX ******** B.11.11 U 9000/800 980442455 unlimited-user license

The N4000:
HP-UX ******** B.11.11 U 9000/800 628329393 unlimited-user license

[Ivan Krastev]

Hi,

There is separate product (Mirrordisk/UX) for making mirrors.

See link for details - http://h20293.www2.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=B2491BA


regards,
ivan

[DCE]

First thing

issue the command ioscna -fnC tape

to see if the system has any recognized tape drives

Then use make_net_recovery to make your bootable backup tape of vg00

man make_net_recovery for assistance

The following link provides some links for books/guidance
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1138706

[MarkSyder]

Hello,

A kindred spirit - I too had an AIX background before moving over to HP-UX.

Your application backups are probably done by Data-Protector, which can easily write the data from one server to a tape drive on another.

If you have a server with plenty of spare disc space you can set it up as an ignite server. Backups of these two servers could then be stored on the ignite server's hard disc(s). You can then, if you want, make bootable tapes for the servers from the network backup. But you really would be better off with at least one tape drive on each system (some of mine have a DAT for ignite and a DLT for application).

Compare the cost of a second disc and a MirrorDisk licence with the cost of three days' downtime, present the figures to your management, and you'll have the disc and licence in no time!

Mark Syder (like the drink but spelt different)

Ps - did it hurt when the servers were dropped in your lap?

[Geoff Wild]

makesyb -> ignite

Ignite is used in HP-UX world to back up your/restore/build OS.

Ignite-UX is an HP-UX administration toolset to help you:

o Install HP-UX 10.x, 11.0 and 11i on multiple systems in your network.
o Create custom install configurations.
o Recover HP-UX systems remotely.
o Monitor system-installation status.

Ignite can be downloaded free of charge from:

http://software.hp.com/products/IUX/


Also look at:

http://bhami.com/rosetta.html

for how to do things in HPUX compared to AIX.

Rgds...Geoff

[Aussan · Accepted solution]

Hi LostADmin
the mksysb on AIX is to make an installable image on to tape or cd,
on HP-UX you can do a make_tape_recovery of vg00 on to tape
the command will be somthing like this

/opt/ignite/bin/make_tape_recovery -I -t "myservername vg00 Jun 26, 2007 " -x inc_entire=vg00 -a /dev/rmt/0mn

or

make_tape_recovery -Iv -x inc_entire=vg00 -a /dev/rmt/0mn

the 0mn is my tape drive, if you do ioscan -fnC tape it will tell you the number for yours

make_net_recovery is to backit up to network (ignite server)

ignite server is the same as AIX NIM server

if you want to create a backup to a CD for an installable image you will have to follow the stept in this link

http://www2.itrc.hp.com/service/cki/docDisplay.do?docLocale=en&docId=emr_na-c01016688-1

i hope this helps

[rmueller58]

I wrote a script to run make_tape_recovery

vgcfgbackup /dev/vg00
vgcfgbackup /dev/vg01
vgcfgbackup /dev/vg02
vgcfgbackup /dev/vg03
make_tape_recovery -A


It backs up all volume group info prior to writing the ignite tape.

FWIW ignite is a real butt saver.

I can out of an AIX / Sun shop about 7 years ago.

SAM = SMIT

I have two tape drives in my N4000
One DAT - I run my ignite tapes and informix archives out to this device, I also have fbackup I run out to the DLT.

fbackup is a good way to get a full system backup.

Ignite will save you if you backup up the volume group configuration first.

Fbackup does not create a bootable tape. Ignite does.

[rmueller58]

Lost,

After you get an Ignite, I definitely look into defining the vg00 mirror.

If you have an HP software contract you can open an issue with HP, they can assist. We have an SE in the area that contracted for 4 hours of his time, and he assisted us in a Vg00 swap, we had to upgrade from 9gb pair to a 36gb pair.

Several forum posts related to vg00 mirroring.


http://www2.itrc.hp.com/service/james/search.do?todo=search&searchtext=vg00+mirror&from=forums&origin=0&wpa=forums1.itrc.hp.com%3A80&searchcategory=ALL&hpl=1&searchcriteria=allwords&rn=25&source=7000&presort=rank&chkServStor=on&esc=support.itrc.hp.com&admit=-1335382922+1182948479408+28353475

[rmueller58]

Check out Steven Protter's post on this thread. outlines process of mirror.

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1140014