HP UX System Management Software manual Recovery, Overview, System recovery

15 Recovery

Overview

System recovery restores a recovery image previously created for a specific system, and is useful in the case of hardware or software failure. See the System recovery section below for more information.

System recovery

Ignite-UX system recovery allows quick recovery from a failed disk. The failure can be either a hardware failure or a catastrophic software failure.

This section assumes you are creating a recovery image to be stored on the Ignite-UX server via the network, or on tape. If you wish to create recovery image media, see Chapter 14 (page 180)

System recovery requires some work before a problem occurs. On a regular basis, you need to run the appropriate tool on each of your systems: make_net_recovery or make_tape_recovery. Use the make_net_recovery command to create a recovery image on another system, or the make_tape_recovery to create a recovery image on tape.

The make_tape_recovery and make_net_recovery commands each create a bootable, installation recovery image that is customized for your machine. Recovery images contain your system’s configuration information (disk layout, etc.) and files from one or more disks. You can exert some control over which files are saved as part of the image - see “Recovery image contents” (page 193) for more information.

The make_net_recovery command and the make_tape_recovery command are collectively referred to as: make_[tapenet]_recovery.

You can use the make_[tapenet]_recovery commands on a command line, the Ignite-UX GUI from the server, or the Ignite-UX TUI from the client to create a recovery image.

Once you have a recovery image on tape or Ignite-UX server, recovering a failed system is easy:

1.If a disk failed, replace it.

2.Boot from your recovery tape or system.

3.Wait for the recovery to complete.

4.Once the system comes back up, verify the system configuration and recover the latest copies of files from the last system backup. Ensure that you do not recover operating system files as this can create unexpected results.

If you have SAS devices connected to the recovery client, be aware that as of Ignite version C.7.5, Ignite will recover to the original disk based on WWID, even if it has been moved. However, moving SAS devices can result in a changed device file name. For more information, see the Ignite-UX and SAS Devices white paper, available at http://www.hp.com/go/ignite-ux-docs.

IMPORTANT: The offline diagnostic environment (ODE) command copyutil is a diagnostic tool for HP-UX 11i and must not be used for system recovery. Instead, use make_[tapenet]_recovery.

IMPORTANT: During HP-UX 11i v3 installation and recovery, connected Active/Passive devices will cause long delays (one hour or more) or may cause a system to hang. Similarly, connecting an Active/Passive device before installing the Active/Passive Switch (APSW) plug-in can cause some commands to take a long time. Disconnect any Active/Passive devices connected to your system before installing or recovering HP-UX 11i v3. After installation or recovery, it is important that the APSW plug-in be installed before connecting an Active/Passive device to the system.

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