Re: Using SAVSTG to get a quick system backup

Except to verify\test normal DR or unless a scratch restore-21 is going to be done before the eventual actual upgrade, I would use the SAVSTG to reset the system instead of the restore entire system for such testing. Although the full system restore is very good, object restores will never compare with the consistency achieved by restore of an disk images; consistency makes testing much nicer. That said, there is still great value in testing the upgrade after the standard DR restore from save-21. But always have the recent full system save [and saves of recent changes] as a backup to the SAVSTG.

We saved considerable time using restore from SAVSTG, not only in the speed of the SAVSTG & restore storage, but mostly from not having to verify our DR [RSTLIB, RST, & RSTAUT activity] and not having to investigate any nuance effected in later testing from what the object restores did. Since the full system saves were being done anyhow, taking the final save-changed and SAVSTG was the only added time on the pre-test. Because having an identical image was *so* nice in such testing, like I noted before, we always made two SAVSTG available from which to restore and only one save-21; several save-21 over previous weeks and daily saves were also available.

Regards, Chuck

Richard Schoen wrote:

So how about if we do 2 regular system saves and then do a
SAVSTG.

This would partially be an experiment as this box isn't in full production use. We're going to be testing a new OS release and
then would restore it back to its original V5R4 state.

My personal thoughts would be that just doing 2 system saves
should cover us, but if there's any time efficiency with SAVSTG
it might be fun to try it.

More thoughts based on my comments ?