Hi. I'm a hobbyist with a mint IBM RS/6000 Model 320 in original 1990 release configuration with a rootvg spread across two noisy SCSI disks (hdisk0 is 400MB, hdisk1 is 320MB). It is running AIX 3.2.5. I want to get these two drives cloned to disk images so I can boot and run the system from a ZuluSCSI/SCSI2SD solution before the disks die.
What I've tried is this:
run mksysb from SMIT to make a backup of the rootvg to a file. I don't have a tape drive, so I write it to a file. That part works fine.
Put that mksysb generated file onto a CD.
Disconnect the two good SCSI drives and replace with blank drives (or blank disk images on a ZuluSCSI)
boot the AIX 3.2.5 install media from CD and choose option 2 - Install from mksysb backup. It asks me to choose the input source, I pick the CD that contains the rootvg image.
The installer chugs for a bit then comes back with a message that says "Cannot find a unique BOS image on the CDROM".
I can mount the CD I created on the machine and the mksysb file is sitting in the root, so I think my CD is ok. But perhaps it's looking for an image using a specific filename?? I can't find any documentation that says it needs to be named something specific.
Anybody have any advice on how to do the AIX 3.2.5 install from a mksysb FILE (again, not from tape, I don't have one).
Later versions of AIX have a "mkcd" command that makes a bootable iso file from a mksysb image, but AIX 3.2.5 doesn't have that command.
...and if you have another idea of how I can clone these two physical drives into images I can put on ZuluSCSI I'd be of course interested. I've tried to just do simple "dd if=/dev/hdisk0 of=/nfs/HD0.img bs=512K" (and the same for /dev/hdisk1) but when I try to boot from the ZuluSCSI it sits a while on LED code 551 "IPL vary-on in running" then eventually stopping on LED code 552 "IPL vary-on failed".
So I then booted again from the maintenance CD and tried to import the root file system from the ZuluSCSI clones images and it shed some light on why the vary-on failed during boot:
# getrootfs
usage: /usr/sbin/getrootfs [-f] diskname
-f disregard status of hd5
Available disks: location:
hdisk0 00-01-00-00
# getrootfs hdisk0 sh
Importing Volume Group ...
PV Status: hdisk0 000005060b0b6196 PVMISSING
hdisk1 000000032641d6ba PVACTIVE
0516-052 varyonvg: Volume group cannot be varied on without a
quorum. More physical volumes in the group must be active.
Run diagnostics on inactive PVs.
0516-780 importvg: Unable to import volume group from hdisk0.
So it shows that hdisk0 is available at SCSI ID 0, but then when trying to import it says hdisk0 physical volume is "PVMISSING".
savevg was introduced after AIX 3.2 (not sure when but I know it's in AIX 4.1), and is used to backup non-rootvg vg's. My system is just the rootvg, hence using mksysb. I'm good at making backups, it's the restore, ha ha!
Hi, yes, I've seen it. The author covers mksysb to do the backup to tape or a file, but then only talks about restore from tape. My issue is restore from file. Probably going to just get a tape drive, which I can also use to install some really old versions of SunOS onto a Sun 3/60 and Sun 3/80. Thanks for forwarding though!
Well I read it as, if you backup to a tape drive, and it puts multiple logical tapes on the media, you can boot directly from tape. If you create a disk file with the backup procedure, you cannot boot directly from that file but have to boot from installation media CD/DVD.
With install media you could boot into single user and then restore, or do a fresh install from the CD/DVD and then restore the backup over the top of it.
You can't call a backup a 'backup' if you can't recover from it.
tells about the boot image file, to be created by the bosboot command.
It does not say if the boot image file is a part of the file system or uses a special invisible file.
In comparison, Solaris(SunOS) uses a boot block, to be created by the installboot command, and not being a part of the file system. (It is located on the disk device though.)
I appreciate y'all's help. Back in the AIX 3.2 era 35 years ago IBM clearly banked on the system having a tape drive. Their backup/restore from a file, while appearing to be supported in SMIT and the OS installation media, is definitely not well documented. Seems like their intent was that any backup to a file would then be used with a NIM server to re-install over the network. I think all this was a big giant hint for me to just spend the $100 to get a tape drive and 500MB worth of tapes so I can just do this using the normal documented procedures. I'm terrified about touching the original two physical drives because they contain some software packages that you just can't find these days if I messed up the disks and had to reinstall. OS images are easy to find, it's the apps!
From what I remember, mksysb was only for tape drives and NIM, but you had the optional 2 fillesets: bos.alt_disk_install.rte ( I hope...) which required alt_disk_install and bos.alt_disk_install.boot_image which required bos.alt_disk_install.rte once installed allowed you to install on alternate disks...
On aix 4.2 we had mkcd command which could create a bootable CD, do you have that?
As for booting, if you don't update your bootlist, it will not go and look for the CD...
About the mksysb file, there is not just one file... Very important to generate image.data file, in order, later, to be able to edit the file and modify it to the new needs, before restoring, the file is created in /etc I think, you edit to fit your new requirements then you do the mksysb...
I did work on aix 3.2 but they were Bull machines, and had more tools than IBM so I can't guarantee all works that way...
I remember having to use tar through a mksyb on tape to look why I could not restore,,, It is a nightmare if you don't know the structure, and even when you do, being able to move with tar to find the block you are looking for is painkilling... I did have documentation on its structure but it is somewhere lost in a garage or shed with all my AIX documentation...
Have you considered using a remote tape drive wherein the tape drive is emulated on a remote system? It wouldn't work for boot, but maybe it would be look real enough for reinstall from a remote tape drive (rmt).
I just ended up buying a cheap tape drive off EBay and did the backup/restore with it via SMIT/mksysb. SCSI tape drives in external SCSI cabinets are really cheap and it was clearly what IBM was expecting to be used at the time.
