mksysb restore hangs on startup

[rheasman]

Hello all,

First time to this forum, and I got a tricky one for you all.

I'm trying a DR exercise - creating a mksysb image of an H80 on a DLT4 tape. I am attempting to restore this onto an F50. The source H80 is mirrored, so I am using a floppy disk with a modified bosinst.data and image.data file to break the mirrors in the restore.

There have been slight errors along the way, but the restore seemed to work - until it came to reboot the restored F50. It completed all the start up routines and was working through /etc/inittab when it just hung (I suspect at "getty /dev/console".

Booting off CD and accessing rootvg via maintenance menu showed that certain lv's were not restored with the correct name, and that getty /dev/console hangs. I cannot recreate the tty as it is in use, and other devices (such as en0) cannot be modified as the system says it is uncertain of their state in the current running system.

So then.... help!

Many thanks for any replies.

Rich

 

[alexhu]

You have to save the mksysb differently - try this

Alex

Creating a mksysb without mirroring

If the ability to rerun the mksysb is available, the following procedure will
allow you to create a mksysb without preserving mirroring.

1. To create a new image.data file, run the following command:
mkszfile

2. Change into the / directory and vi the image.data file. Enter:

cd /
vi image.data

3. The following examples show an lv_data stanza of an image.data file. The
first example is with mirroring, while the second example shows the edited
version without mirroring. The lines that need changes are marked by -->
and are boldfaced. In the second example, the changes are made to those
lines.

To view and edit the file, enter:

vi image.data

Example 1

lv_data:
VOLUME_GROUP= rootvg
LV_SOURCE_DISK_LIST= hdisk0
LV_IDENTIFIER= 00000001113f3c62.5
LOGICAL_VOLUME= hd2
VG_STAT= active/complete
TYPE= jfs
MAX_LPS= 512
--> COPIES = 2
LPs = 70
STALE_PPs= 0
INTER_POLICY= minimum
INTRA_POLICY= center
MOUNT_POINT= /usr
MIRROR_WRITE_CONSISTENCY= on
LV_SEPARATE_PV= yes
PERMISSION= read/write
LV_STATE= opened/syncd
WRITE_VERIFY= off
PP_SIZE= 4
SCHED_POLICY= parallel
--> PP = 140
BB_POLICY= relocatable
RELOCATABLE= yes
UPPER_BOUND= 32
LABEL= /usr
MAPFILE=
LV_MIN_LPS= 68

Example 2

lv_data:
VOLUME_GROUP= rootvg
LV_SOURCE_DISK_LIST= hdisk0
LV_IDENTIFIER= 00000001113f3c62.5
LOGICAL_VOLUME= hd2
VG_STAT= active/complete
TYPE= jfs
MAX_LPS= 512
--> COPIES = 1
LPs = 70
STALE_PPs= 0
INTER_POLICY= minimum
INTRA_POLICY= center
MOUNT_POINT= /usr
MIRROR_WRITE_CONSISTENCY= on
LV_SEPARATE_PV= yes
PERMISSION= read/write
LV_STATE= opened/syncd
WRITE_VERIFY= off
PP_SIZE= 4
SCHED_POLICY= parallel
--> PP = 70
BB_POLICY= relocatable
RELOCATABLE= yes
UPPER_BOUND= 32
LABEL= /usr
MAPFILE=
LV_MIN_LPS= 68

In Example 2 the COPIES value has been changed to 1 and the PP value is
set equal to the LPs value. Make these changes to each of the lv_data
stanzas in the image.data file. Once the changes are made, save the file
and exit.
4. Run another mksysb from the command line that will utilize your edited
image.data file.

mksysb /dev/rmtX (where X is the number of your tape drive)

WARNINGS:
o Do not run the mksysb in SMIT because this will update the image.data
file and overwrite any changes made.
o Do not run the mksysb with the -i flag because this will update the
image.data file as well.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Breaking mirrors on an existing mksysb

If another mksysb cannot be run, the following procedure can be used to restore
a mksysb without mirroring.

NOTE: Access to another AIX system and an AIX formatted diskette is required to
perform this procedure.

All references to the tape device in the next section are as rmt0.

1. On another AIX system, place the mksysb tape in the tape drive. Change the
block size of the tape drive to 512 by running:

chdev -l rmt0 -a block_size=512

2. Create a temporary directory in /tmp called newdata.

mkdir /tmp/newdata

3. Change to the /tmp/newdata directory. Enter:

cd /tmp/newdata

4. Make sure that the tape is rewound. Enter:

tctl -f /dev/rmt0 rewind

5. Restore the image.data file from the second image of the mksysb tape.
Enter:

restore -s2 -xqvf /dev/rmt0.1 ./image.data

6. Edit the /tmp/newdata/image.data file and make changes to each of the
lv_data stanzas as indicated in the examples that follow. The lines that
need changes are marked by --> and are boldfaced. In Example 4, the
changes are made to those lines.

To view and edit the file, enter:

vi image.data

Example 3

lv_data:
VOLUME_GROUP= rootvg
LV_SOURCE_DISK_LIST= hdisk0
LV_IDENTIFIER= 00000001113f3c62.5
LOGICAL_VOLUME= hd4
VG_STAT= active/complete
TYPE= jfs
MAX_LPS= 512
--> COPIES = 2
LPs = 120
STALE_PPs= 0
INTER_POLICY= minimum
INTRA_POLICY= center
MOUNT_POINT= /
MIRROR_WRITE_CONSISTENCY= on
LV_SEPARATE_PV= yes
PERMISSION= read/write
LV_STATE= opened/syncd
WRITE_VERIFY= off
PP_SIZE= 4
SCHED_POLICY= parallel
--> PP = 240
BB_POLICY= relocatable
RELOCATABLE= yes
UPPER_BOUND= 32
LABEL= /
MAPFILE=
LV_MIN_LPS= 68

Example 4

lv_data:
VOLUME_GROUP= rootvg
LV_SOURCE_DISK_LIST= hdisk0
LV_IDENTIFIER= 00000001113f3c62.5
LOGICAL_VOLUME= hd4
VG_STAT= active/complete
TYPE= jfs
MAX_LPS= 512
--> COPIES = 1
LPs = 120
STALE_PPs= 0
INTER_POLICY= minimum
INTRA_POLICY= center
MOUNT_POINT= /
MIRROR_WRITE_CONSISTENCY= on
LV_SEPARATE_PV= yes
PERMISSION= read/write
LV_STATE= opened/syncd
WRITE_VERIFY= off
PP_SIZE= 4
SCHED_POLICY= parallel
--> PP = 120
BB_POLICY= relocatable
RELOCATABLE= yes
UPPER_BOUND= 32
LABEL= /
MAPFILE=
LV_MIN_LPS= 120

In Example 4 the COPIES value has been changed to 1 and the PP value is
set equal to the LPs value. Make these changes to each of the lv_data
stanzas in the image.data file. Once the changes are made, save the file
and exit.
7. After making the changes to the image.data file, create a signature file.
The signature file is required by the restore procedure.

echo data > signature

8. Format the diskette.

format /dev/rfd0

9. Back up the two files (image.data and signature) to the diskette drive.

find . -print |backup -iqvf /dev/rfd0

10. Verify that the two files were backed up and that the diskette can be
read.

restore -Tqvf /dev/rfd0

11. Reboot the target system off of the mksysb tape with the diskette in the
floppy drive and follow the normal mksysb restore procedures. The edited
version of the image.data file will be used to recreate the logical
volumes without mirroring.

 

[alexhu]

So are you doing the second part of the procedure ?

Alex

 

[alexhu]

Further to my other stuff - I have successfully done this using the first part of the procedure rather than the second

Alex

 

[rheasman]

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I am using the second part of the procedure. IBM suggested this - also to edit the field in bosinst.data for 'recover_devices' to say 'no'.

Sadly this still does not work - the restored system still hangs....

Rich