Using Ignite for non-system filesystems

[Joel Shank]

Can Ignite be used to backup/restore non-system applications/filesystems, or is it only for restoring the OS? I'd like to be able to create a "golden image" of my ENTIRE system, the OS and all user applications and files. Can Ignite do this? Can it be done on one bootable tape? Ideally, I'd like to boot from the tape and have it restore the whole system, as it looks today.

[Rick Garland]

Ignite can make a "Golden Image" of a system so that you could build another system to look exactly like the one you have now. However, Ignite is not recommended for backup/restore. This portion (make_recovery) is for the root VG and is meant for bring back a system in case you lose the root.

Check the docs for making a golden image.

[Alex Glennie]

yes I'm sure ignite will copy over golden images of applications as well, we use this in the UKRC, however the more apps the longer it takes : lots of info & docs on the HP Docs web site

[Andreas Voss · Accepted solution]

Hi,

mainly Ignite is a tool for OS purposes only.
However with make_recovery you can add more files/dirs to the tape:
make_recovery -p -d /dev/rmt/0mn
This will leave a file /var/opt/ignite/arch.include to which you can add more stuff.
Then with
make_recovery -r -d /dev/rmt/0mn
the whole things in /var/opt/ignite/arch.include will be backed up to the tape.

Regards

Andrew

[Joel Shank]

Thanks for the info. I know that Ignite was originally built for the OS. I am trying to better understand Ignite from the all the manuals I have on it, but they are confusing and the examples I find only show imaging the OS. I will play around with the -p option and see if I can understand how to add more files to the config file.

Has anybody done this (imaging both OS and user files/apps)?

[Rick Garland]

I believe that the amount of data is going to be a limiting factor. If I recall correctly, Ignite tapes can only be created on DDS or DAT tapes. If you have lots of disk space to account for, I don't believe you will fit onto a DDS/DAT tape.

There isn't a problem with adding additional files/dir to the ignite tape.

I guess what I am saying is, don't rely on Ignite as a backup/restore solution. Wasn't made for this.

[Joel Shank]

Can Ignite write to a locally attached DLT tape drive, if I have the drivers installed for it?

[Rick Garland]

The notes I have do not indicate it as an option - only DDS is specified. I don't believe there would be harm in trying. Use the -d option to specify the device. And use a non-production server to test this.

[Anthony deRito]

The make_recovery man page states:

"DLT boot support works for systems that use the HSC SCSI cards. K and D class systems that utilize the HSC bus will boot from DLT. V-Class systems that use the PCI bus will boot from DLT. T,E,G, and H class systems do not boot from DLT devices."

Tony

[Garrin Thompson]

What about R-Class?

[Wodisch]

Hi,
check the docu for the command "make_net_recovery" - I remember some piece
of information (not supported, of course :-) about using "make_net_recovery" to
backup and recover non-root volume groups...
HTH,
Wodisch

[Tim Malnati]

The upshot of all of this is that Ignite is primarily a cloning tool. It is not an everyday backup method. Where offsite disaster recovery is a form of cloning activity, it can be very useful for recreating a baseline environment. I don't recommend it to recreate every file on your system though. Use it for the OS as a minimum. You can expand it to include such things as the database engine and application processing (source and object code). The data files are better handled with your standard backup methodology. These files are changing too much on a daily basis and would tend to interfere in a disaster recovery. It's somewhat pointless to recover a file to the environment with Ignite if it's going to be overlayed with a more recent copy during the data portion of the recovery. Having an all encompasing backup with Ignite is somewhat counter productive too where you are negatively impacting availability to get it done.