Re: Need Help with VIOS backupios Cmd

On 11/22/2012 1:20 PM, Kirk Goins wrote:

OK I'm coming to the experts here since I can't seem to get the help I need
from IBM today...

I'm only guessing here because I do not attempt to backup the VIOS environment.

The mapping for virtual SCSI devices is not backed up with the backupios command. This may be what the error messages mean. Or, because the IBM_i volume group is large, there is some construct that backupios cannot create on tape (maximum 2TB related?) and thus the errors?

I'm guessing with the backupios, you don't really want to save your IBM i information, but instead you want to save the IBM_i volume group and the vSCSI mapping information, right? To backup the mappings, use the command
viosbr -backup -file xxxxxxxx
replacing xxxxxx with a name meaningful to you. The resulting tar.gz file will contain almost all the information needed to recreate the vSCSI mappings for the client LPARs.

To get the backup to complete without errors, I believe you'll need to have the command be

backupios -tape /dev/rmt0 -nosvg

Note: see http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/powersys/v3r1m5/topic/p7hcgl/backupios.htm for additional parameters that can be added to the command to exclude virtual media repository or save to file instead of tape.

Run viosbr first, then backupios. This should put everything you need for the VIOS LPAR on tape. To recover, you restore from the tape then run
viosbr -restore -file xxxxxxxx
At this point, you're ready to start restoring client LPARs.

FYI. I FTP the file from the viosbr command to multiple machines. My disaster recovery plan for VIOS is to grab the current level install media for VIOS and then download any device drivers needed (usually the multipath for SAN device specific stuff). Use the viosbr -restore command to recover mappings. Then begin restore from tape of each client.