Yea, that technique will almost never achieve a recovery time objective (RTO). I've had customers want to try it so we set up the ASP (separate disk units just for save) and get it going. All but one have dropped it as too hard to manage and too slow. One tried a recovery to test it (at my insistence) and dropped the idea straight away.
Now for project level saves, special saves, saves that are not critical, Oh yea I love virtual tape, but for DR purposes, give me an external device tape or VTL (I use SPHiNX) but it's off the system and it can do a bare metal recovery.
-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Rob Berendt
Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2016 7:56 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: Cranky LTO tape drive
And, although I've already said this, I'd like to add on to Jim's comments that restoring from a virtual tape image catalog when you're doing a full system restore is nigh on to impossible. First you have to get enough of your system working (from IBM distribution media) to communicate back to your ftp server, retrieve the image catalog entries, and initiate the restore.
Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1 Group Dekko Dept 1600 Mail to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com
From: Jim Oberholtzer <midrangel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'"
<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 12/29/2016 08:49 AM
Subject: RE: Cranky LTO tape drive
Sent by: "MIDRANGE-L" <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Pete:
Tape drive is dead. Been there done that, it's dead. If you need a good
used parts guy let me know.
As to Don's suggestion, that'll work, but boy is it a lot of work.......
It's also likely to be fairly slow since the I/O is all on the drives your
backing up.
-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Don
Brown
Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2016 5:30 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Cranky LTO tape drive
Instead of saving to tape why not save to virtual tape and then ftp the
save to your laptop or some other device ?
Here is a summary of what is required ...
Create the Image Catalogue
CRTIMGCLG IMGCLG(tapvrt01 ) DIR('/tapvrt01') TYPE(*TAP)
Add an Image Catalogue Entry
ADDIMGCLGE IMGCLG(TAPVRT01) FROMFILE(*NEW) TOFILE(VOL001)
Load the Image Catalogue
LODIMGCLG IMGCLG(tapvrt01 ) DEV(TAPVRT01)
Save a Library
SAVLIB LIB(LIB_NAME) DEV(TAPVRT01) <plus any other options required>
I also had these notes about saving the image catalog to another system
...
Saving an Image Catalog and Its Images
To save an image catalog and its images, do the following:
Note: If saving to save file, pre create two save files using the CRTSAVF
command.
1 To save the image catalog object, on the operating system command line,
type the following:
SAVOBJ OBJ(imagecatalogxx) LIB(QUSRSYS) DEV(*SAVF) OBJTYPE(*IMGCLG)
SAVF(savf_library/savf_name1)
where imagecatalogxx is the name of the image catalog. This example saves
to a save file to later FTP, but you could use a different device if
desired. Press the Enter key.
2 To save the image images for the catalog, on the operating system
command line type the following:
SAV DEV('/QSYS.LIB/savf_library.LIB/savf_name2.FILE')
OBJ('/imagedirectory')
where savf_name2 is the name of a save file that is different from the one
in step 1, and /imagedirectory is the directory associated with the image
catalog. Press the Enter key.
* To find the directory of the image catalog, on the operating system
command line type the following:
WRKIMGCLGE imagecatalogxx
where imagecatalogxx is the name of the image catalog. Press the Enter
key. The directory will be listed near the top.
Note: To save the images at R530 and above, the image catalog must be
unloaded from the virtual optical device using the following command:
LODIMGCLG IMGCLG(IMGCLG) DEV(OPTVRTXX) OPTION(*UNLOAD)
Or, the following command must be specified. This allows the images to be
saved while the catalog is loaded; otherwise, the save fails with message
CPD3775. Be aware that if images in the IFS were saved via saving the
entire IFS (sav of /*) the message CPD3775 will be not logged.
CHGATR OBJ('/imgclg_dir') ATR(*ALWSAV) VALUE(*YES) SUBTREE(*ALL)
Note: Individual device descriptions cannot be saved. You can create
virtual devices on the target system using the CRTDEVOPT or CRTDEVTAP
command and specifying the resource name as *VRT.
Transporting virtual storage
After saving the image catalog object and the image catalog directory with
its images, you can transport them to another system using one of the
following methods:
- FTP
- IBM i Navigator
- QFilesvr.400
- OptiConnect
- ObjectConnect
- Save/Restore using physical media
- NetServer™ shares
Restoring an Image Catalog and Its Images
To restore an image catalog and its images to another system, do the
following:
1 To restore the image catalog to the target system, on the operating
system command line type the following:
RSTOBJ OBJ(imagecatalog) SAVLIB(QUSRSYS) DEV(*SAVF) OBJTYPE(*IMGCLG)
SAVF(SAVF_LIB/SAVF_NAME1) MBROPT(*ALL) ALWOBJDIF(*ALL)
Press the Enter key.
2 To restore the images to the same directory associated with the image
catalog, on the operating system command line type the following:
RST DEV('QSYS.LIB/savf_lib.LIB/savf_name2.FILE') OBJ('/imagedirectory')
Press the Enter key.
Notes:
a) If using ObjectConnect or FTP, the directory must exist before the
objects can be restored.
b) Running the VFYIMGCLG command against restored images is recommended.
c) If the target system is at a previous release, specify the release in
the TGTRLS parameter.
d) If restoring at R530 (or above) image catalog to a R520 system, only
the first 64 indexes are recognized..
e) If this is saved or restored using a physical device, the device
parameter is similar to: DEV('/QSYS.LIB/TAPxx.DEVD')
Re-creating the Image Catalog and Adding Images Back into the Catalog
(only needed if *imgclg object was not saved/restored)
To re-create the image catalog and add the images back into the catalog,
do the following:
1 To create the image catalog, on the operating system command line type
the following:
CRTIMGCLG IMGCLG(imagecatalogxx) DIR('/imagedirectory')
Press the Enter key.
2 To add the catalog entries from images that were restored, on the
operating system command line type the following:
ADDIMGCLGE IMGCLG(imagecatalogxx) FROMFILE('imagefile') TOFILE(*FROMFILE)
where the 'imagefile' is the image that was restored to '/imagedirectory'
in the section " Restoring an Image Catalog and Its Images , for example,
I_BASE_O1, B2924_01, and so on).
3 Repeat Step 2 for each image in the directory.
Note: Steps 1 through 3 must not be performed if you have previously
restored the image catalog object using the following command:
RSTOBJ OBJ(imagecatalog) SAVLIB(QUSRSYS) DEV(device) OBJTYPE(*IMGCLG)
MBROPT(*ALL) ALWOBJDIF(*ALL) .
4 To load the image catalog, on the operating system command line type the
following:
LODIMGCLG IMGCLG(imagecatalogxx) DEV(virtualopticaldevice)
Press the Enter key.
5 To verify the image catalog, on the operating system command line type
the following:
VFYIMGCLG IMGCLG(imagecatalogxx) TYPE(*OTHER) SORT(*YES)
Press the Enter key.
Note: If this is part of an upgrade to V5R3M0 or to a higher release,
verifying the image catalog can not be done until the software agreements
have been accepted and space has been reserved for licensed internal code.
Don Brown
midrange.com
