[HOWTO] linux server barebone recovery with tsm live-cd

[fwang]

recently, I did some experiment about linux server barebone recovery with tsm live-cd. the scenario is when linux server crashes, everything loses in hard drive including filesystems structure. so, I could use my custmized live-cd to recreate the filesystems, recover everything that backed up to tsm server and reinstall the bootloader.

it took me about 9 days. but I finally got it successfully. the following is the steps I made.

1. install a linux server. in this case, I picked centos 5.3. since it really close to redhat es distributions.
2. update through yum until up-2-date.
3. install live-cd components for centos.
3.1 create a file centos-livecd.repo in /etc/yum.repos.d. add the follwoing into it.
# Name: CentOS LiveCD repository
[livecd]
name = CentOS $releasever - LiveCD
baseurl = http://www.nanotechnologies.qc.ca/propos/linux/centos-live/$basearch/live
enabled=1
protect=0
gpgkey = http://www.nanotechnologies.qc.ca/propos/linux/RPM-GPG-KEY-PGuay
3.2 install the live-cd tools
# yum install livecd-tools syslinux anaconda-runtime
please check this for more details
https://projects.centos.org/trac/livecd/wiki/GetToolset
3.3 down my very own kickstart configuration files. of course, you can download the one from the upper URL and modify it for your own situation
3.4 install rpm createrepo-0.4.11-3.el5
yum install createrepo
4. download ibm java and tsm client
4.1 unzip ibm java to /usr and create a linux to it
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Nov 28 2008 ibm-java2-i386-50
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 Sep 2 17:47 java -> /usr/ibm-java2-i386-50/
5. create a work environment
#mkdir -p /wrk/live-cd/tsm; copy all tsm client files( TIVsm-API.i386.rpm and TIVsm-BA.i386.rpm) into /wrk/live-cd/tsm
6 create a repostory for tsm
#createrepo /wrk/live-cd/tsm/
2/2 - TIVsm-BA.i386.rpm
Saving Primary metadata
Saving file lists metadata
Saving other metadata
7. find out post install scripts for tsm client/api rpms. you could download mine instead.
#rpm -q --scripts TIVsm-API.i386
#rpm -q --scripts TIVsm-BA.i386
7.1 copy the post install scripts to your own work env.
8. create the live-cd
#livecd-creator --config=centos-livecd-desktop_tsmclient.ks --fslabel=centos-livecd-desktop_tsmclient.ks
and now you have got your own live-cd that has tsm client installed.
9. boot the machine from the live-cd; log in as root or default user tsmadmin;
10. create the filesystems or lvm; mount all new filesystems (/ and /boot) to /mnt/root /mnt/boot respectively.or any mountporint you want to name it.
11. run dsmc or dsmj ( only for root user ) to recover the files to /mnt/root and /mnt/boot.
12. after step 11 done, reinstall the bootload grub
Enter Grub Command Line:
# grub
grub> find /grub/stage1
On a RAID 1 with two drives present you should expect to get
(hd0,0)
(hd1,0)
On a RAID 1 with a single drive present you should get
(hd0,0) or (hd1,0)
depending on which drive has failed. (hd0,0) is your first drive, first partition on first drive and (hd1,0) is your second drive, first partition on the second drive.

Install Grub on Master Boot Record (MBR):

grub> device (hd0) /dev/sdb (or /dev/hdb for IDE drives)
grub> root (hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)

13. reboot machine from harddrive; monitor any errors durning boot and fix it after system up and running correctly.


thank

Frank

 

[tenpin]

Have you changed or refined this process at all? how well does it work? any other tips if I want to try this out?

 

[fwang]

We recently upgraded the tsm server from 5.4.x to 6.2.2.x. the old tsm live-cd will not work any more since the client version is 5.4.x. I repeated the process with tsm client for linux 6.x.

the live-cd is able to bring up the server. but somehow the dsmj hung up around 10% without any error in dsmj.log. but I still can restore a entire filesystem through command line.

there is no much change in the kickstart script. but the repo of tsmclient and post script need to be updated.

 

[xender69]

We recently upgraded the tsm server from 5.4.x to 6.2.2.x. the old tsm live-cd will not work any more since the client version is 5.4.x. I repeated the process with tsm client for linux 6.x.

the live-cd is able to bring up the server. but somehow the dsmj hung up around 10% without any error in dsmj.log. but I still can restore a entire filesystem through command line.

there is no much change in the kickstart script. but the repo of tsmclient and post script need to be updated.

I would be very instrested in this procedure, can you show us how you would restore a entire system through command line. Tks

 

[Parias]

Just wanted to resurrect this thread to thank the originator for going to the effort of publishing this information - I've been frustrated by the lack of official information on how to perform a proper, 'bare-metal' restore of Linux environments using Tivoli and this was exactly what I needed. Thanks!