Some background so you can see what I'm trying to do on AIX:
In Windows its possible to partition a single hard drive into 2 separate logical paritions which may appear as a C and a D drive. It is then possible to to use 3rd party software such as Power Quest Drive Image to create a backup image of the C drive and store it on the D drive. You can then later restore that image stored on the D drive back onto the C drive.
Question:
Does AIX have the equivalent?
Current backup and restore methods for the rootvg that I'm aware of are tapes and a NIM Server.
I know it is possible to backup the rootvg volume group to another volume group using savevg or mksysb, but it is possible to restore the rootvg backup in the same way that I restore using a tape or a NIM Server?
I would like to be able backup images of the rootvg to another volume group, do my software testing, and then restore the backup and be able to start with a 'clean' rootvg. This way I can avoid tapes and a NIM Server.
if your looking just for a copy of all the files then just tar it all up and put it on another vg.
but if you render the rootvg inoperable in your testing your going to want a mksysb tape to boot from and restore to the contents on tape.
you could always use the backup command and direct the contents to the remote drive. but again have a mksysb avaliable incase you destroy the rootvg.
man backup
-f Device Specifies the output device. To send output to a named device, specify
the Device variable as a path name (such as /dev/rmt0). To send output to the
standard output device, specify a - (minus sign). The - (minus) feature enables
you to pipe the output of the backup command to the dd command.
You can also specify a range of archive devices. The range specification must be
in the following format:
/dev/deviceXXX-YYY
where XXX and YYY are whole numbers, and XXX must always be less than YYY; for
example, /dev/rfd0-3.
All devices in the specified range must be of the same type. For example, you
can use a set of 8mm, 2.3GB tapes or a set of 1.44MB diskettes. All tape devices
must be set to the same physical tape block size.
If the Device variable specifies a range, the backup command automatically goes
from one device in the range to the next. After exhausting all of the specified
devices, the backup command halts and requests that new volumes be mounted on
the range of devices.
