Yeah: mksysb + ADSM is a kind of good combination for AIX. Just make sure
that you also have documentation (or better: scripts) at hand that assist
you in recreating non-rootvg Volume Groups and their filesystems before
restoring everything from the ADSM server. Take a look at the savevg and
restvg scripts - they have implemented code for saving and recreating LVM
things before saving and restoring the data itself.

Mit freundlichem Gruss/Best Regards

Michael Abel
==================================
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Bruce Elrick <belrick AT HOME DOT COM> on 06.08.98 02:16:08

Please respond to "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>

To:   ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
cc:    (bcc: Michael Abel/resnova)
Subject:  Re: Restore of UNIX systems




As other have mentioned, a mksysb on AIX nicely accomplishes this.
During a mksysb restore, the kernal is booted off tape and temporary RAM
filesystems are used to hold a working stripped-down OS while the OS
filesystems are being restored. It then populates the boot logical
volume and writes the master boot record on the disk.

For a large number of systems, you can set up NIM (Network Installation
Manager) to essentially restore mksysb's over the network.  NIM also
allows installation from fileset images.  For Sun, there is Jumpstart,
which allows you to install the OS from install images like NIM; I don't
know whether it supports restoration from special system backups like
NIM does with mksysb's.

Cheers...
Bruce

Peter Gathercole wrote:
>
> A lot depends on the flavor of Unix that you are using. In theory it
should be
> possible to hook a disk up to another server, partition it (if that Unix
uses
> partitioning), make the filesystems, mount them onto the system in the
correct
> heirarchy, but hung off another directory, and then restore the files
using a
> target of the top of the new directory heirarchy. For example, you would
mount
> the partition you wish to use as / as /othersystem, mount the partition
that
> will be /usr as /othersystem/usr etc.
>
> You could then use "dsmc restore -fromnode=systemtorestore /
/othersystem.
>
> You would have to do this for each filesystem or filespace.
>
> This is only half the story, however. It would be necessary to re-build
whatever
> is regarded as the boot record for that flavor of Unix. This is almost
certainly
> possible, but it would be necessary to know how to do it for that
particulat
> Unix. I cannot tell you how to do this without knowing which Unix
varient, and
> even then I may not be familier with that Unix.
>
> Peter Gathercole
> Open Systems Consultant
>
> Karen Krowzack wrote:
>
> > I understand that there is no "bare metal restore" capability for UNIX
> > systems.  However, if a major filesystem(s) or disk is lost, is ADSM
capable
> > of restoring a filesystem onto a replacement disk that you hook up to a
2nd
> > server?  If so, how do you tell ADSM to direct the restoration of the
> > filesystem(s) solely to that replacement disk?
> >
> > Or is the only restore procedure in use the process whereby you boot
from
> > bootable media, restore the major OS filesystems from tape and then
restore
> > whatever else is desired from ADSM?
> >
> > Thanks as always for any ideas.  They are truly appreciated.
> >
> > Karen Krowzack
> > IBM Global Services
> > Tieline 461, x7309
> > Outside phone - 312-394-7309
> > Pager:  800-759-8888, PIN 1967096
> > email:  Karen.M.Krowzack AT ucm DOT com