Restoring the Virtual I/O Server using IBM Tivoli Storage Manager

You can use the IBM® Tivoli® Storage Manager to restore the mksysb image of the Virtual I/O Server.

You can restore the Virtual I/O Server to the system from which it was backed up, or to a new or different system (for example, in the event of a system failure or disaster). The following procedure applies to restoring the Virtual I/O Server to the system from which it was backed up. First, you restore the mksysb image to the Virtual I/O Server using the dsmc command on the Tivoli Storage Manager client. But restoring the mksysb image does not restore the Virtual I/O Server. You then need to transfer the mksysb image to another system and convert the mksysb image to an installable format.

To restore the Virtual I/O Server to a new or different system, use one of the following procedures:

Before you start, complete the following tasks:
  1. Ensure that the system to which you plan to transfer the mksysb image is running AIX®.
  2. Ensure that the system running AIX has a DVD-RW or CD-RW drive.
  3. Ensure that AIX has the cdrecord and mkisofs RPMs downloaded and installed. To download and install the RPMs, see the AIX Toolbox for Linux® Applications Web site.
Restriction: Interactive mode is not supported on the Virtual I/O Server. You can view session information by typing dsmc on the Virtual I/O Server command line.

To restore the Virtual I/O Server using Tivoli Storage Manager, complete the following tasks:

  1. Determine which file you want to restore by running the dsmc command to display the files that have been backed up to the Tivoli Storage Manager server: 
    dsmc -query
  2. Restore the mksysb image using the dsmc command. For example: 
    dsmc -restore sourcefilespec
    Where sourcefilespec is the directory path to the location where you want to restore the mksysb image. For example, /home/padmin/mksysb_image
  3. Transfer the mksysb image to a server with a DVD-RW or CD-RW drive by running the following File Transfer Protocol (FTP) commands:
    1. Run the following command to make sure that the FTP server is started on the Virtual I/O Server: startnetsvc ftp
    2. Run the following command to make sure that the FTP server is started on the Virtual I/O Server: startnetsvc ftp
    3. Open an FTP session to the server with the DVD-RW or CD-RW drive: ftp server_hostname, where server_hostname is the hostname of the server with the DVD-RW or CD-RW drive.
    4. At the FTP prompt, change to the installation directory to the directory where you want to save the mksysb image.
    5. Set the transfer mode to binary: binary
    6. Turn off interactive prompting if it is on: prompt
    7. Transfer the mksysb image to the server: mput mksysb_image
    8. Close the FTP session, after transferring mksysb image, by typing quit.
  4. Write the mksysb image to CD or DVD using the mkcd or mkdvd commands.
  5. Reinstall the Virtual I/O Server using the CD or DVD that you just created. For instructions, see Restoring the Virtual I/O Server from one or more DVDs.