Pat Randall wrote:
>
>  A 'bare metal restore' redbook is available at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com
> under New Info.
>  Please be aware that this material is still being edited for formal redbook
> publication. It is web published now for those who need the information now
> and who are willing to put up with spelling, grammar and layout errors. The
> material has not been submitted to any formal IBM test and is published AS IS.
> Your feedback is welcomed to improve the usefulness of the content to others.
>  Thanks are due to many members of this forum for input to the residency.
>  More client platforms will be added as available.
> Pat Randall IBM ITSO SanJose CA                       Pat_Randall AT vnet.ibm 
> DOT com
>

I took a look at the parts of the draft redbook that pertain to client
platforms in use at my site, and discovered a very serious omission in
the AIX 3 and AIX 4 chapters. Both recommend using mksysb tapes for the
initial stages of client restore. We have had several incidents, some of
them quite painful, where the mksysb command reported successful
completion but produced a tape that subsequently proved to be unusable.
IBM has declined to fix the mksysb command, and has suggested that we
run test restores of newly created mksysb tapes if we are bothered by
the prospect that the tapes will prove to be unusable when they are
needed. If the redbook is going to advocate using mksysb tapes as a
critical part of a disaster recovery plan, it should include fair
warning of the limitations of mksysb, and a discussion of the precautions
required to compensate for these limitations.