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NBMR AIX QuickStartGuide

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
203 views40 pages

NBMR AIX QuickStartGuide

Uploaded by

Esteban Restrepo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Bare Machine Recovery for EMC NetWorker

Quick Start Guide


For AIX

May 2017

Version 8.1.1

Cristie Software Ltd. Cristie Data Products GmbH Cristie Nordic AB


New Mill Nordring 53-55 Knarrarnäsgatan 7
Chestnut Lane 164 40 Kista
Stroud GL5 3EW 63843 Niedernberg Sweden
United Kingdom Germany Tel:+46(0)8 718 43 30
Tel:+44(0)1453 847000 Tel: +49 (0) 60 28/97 95-0 [email protected]
Fax:+44(0)1453 847001 Fax: +49 (0) 60 28/97 95 7-99
[email protected] [email protected]
Copyright © 2003-2017 Cristie Software Ltd.
All rights reserved.

The software contains proprietary information of Cristie Software Ltd.; it is provided under a license agreement
containing restrictions on use and disclosure and is also protected by copyright law. Reverse engineering of the
software is prohibited.

Due to continued product development this information may change without notice. The information and intellectual
property contained herein is confidential between Cristie Software Ltd. and the client and remains the exclusive
property of Cristie Software Ltd. If you find any problems in the documentation, please report them to us in writing.
Cristie Software Ltd. does not warrant that this document is error-free.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of Cristie
Software Ltd.

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM), AIX and TIVOLI are trademarks of the IBM Corporation.

IBM Spectrum Protect is a trademark of the IBM Corporation.

IBM Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) is a trademark of the IBM Corporation.

NetWorker and Avamar are trademarks of the EMC Corporation.

vSphere, vCenter and vCloud are trademarks of VMware Inc.

Hyper-V is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

Azure is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc.

CloneManager® is a registered trademark of Cristie Software Ltd..

Cristie Management Console (CMC), PC-BaX, UBax, Cristie Connect, Cristie Storage Manager (CSM), SDB, ABMR
(Bare Machine Recovery for EMC Avamar), NBMR (Bare Machine Recovery for EMC NetWorker), TBMR (Bare Machine
Recovery for Spectrum Protect/TSM), CBMR (Cristie Bare Machine Recovery), Recovery Simulator (RS) and CRISP
(Cristie Recovery ISO Producer) are all trademarks of Cristie Software Ltd.

Cristie Software Ltd


New Mill
Chestnut Lane
Stroud
GL5 3EW
UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1453 847000


Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.cristie.com
Contents 3

Contents

1 About NBMR for AIX 4

2 Document Conventions 5

3 System Requirements 6

4 NBMR for AIX software 7

5 Installation 8
5.1 Install
...................................................................................................................................
via Smit/Smitty 8
5.2 Install
...................................................................................................................................
via RPM 8
5.3 License
................................................................................................................................... 8
5.4 Uninstall
................................................................................................................................... 9

6 Product Licensing 10
6.1 Trial
...................................................................................................................................
License 10
6.2 Full
...................................................................................................................................
License 11
6.2.1 Setting up.........................................................................................................................................................
a Cristie Licensing Portal account 11
6.2.2 Online Activation
......................................................................................................................................................... 13
6.2.3 Manual Activation
......................................................................................................................................................... 15

7 Creating a Recovery Image 16


7.1 PXE
...................................................................................................................................
Booting 17

8 Performing a DR backup 19
8.1 Recording
...................................................................................................................................
System Information 19
8.2 Creating
...................................................................................................................................
Networker Backup 21

9 Performing a Disaster Recovery 22


9.1 Starting
...................................................................................................................................
the Recovery Environment 22
9.1.1 Autom atic.........................................................................................................................................................
Recovery Wizard 25
9.1.2 Manual Recovery
......................................................................................................................................................... 33
9.1.3 Post Recovery .........................................................................................................................................................
Changes 37
9.1.4 Trouble-shooting
......................................................................................................................................................... 37
9.1.5 Copying Log .........................................................................................................................................................
Files 38

10 Cristie Technical Support 40

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4 Bare Machine Recovery for EMC NetWorker

1 About NBMR for AIX


NBMR for AIX provides a file-based backup and disaster recovery (DR) system for AIX 6.1.

The process of backing up and recovering an AIX machine comprises three phases:

1. Create a bootable recovery environment from the running machine

2. Perform the Disaster Recovery (DR) backup

3. Perform the recovery

Stages 1 and 3 may be performed using the Graphical User Interface run from the command nbmr.
The disaster recovery backup must be performed using the EMC NetWorker backup tools - please
refer to your EMC NetWorker documentation for instructions on how to do this.

Note: NBMR must be installed and run by a user that has root access

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Document Conventions 5

2 Document Conventions
The following typographical conventions are used throughout this guide:

/etc/passwd represents command-line commands, options, parameters, directory


names and filenames
Next > used to signify clickable buttons on a GUI dialogue
Note: describes something of importance related to the current topic

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6 Bare Machine Recovery for EMC NetWorker

3 System Requirements
NBMR for AIX requires the following minimum hardware requirements:

Disk Space 1GB

Memory 1GB

NetWorker Servers 8.1 - 9.1.0

NetWorker Clients 8.1 - 9.1.0

Veritas Storage Foundation 5.0 - 6.1 (excluding 6.0)

NBMR for AIX is suitable for all versions of AIX after 6.1. However, ACLs (Access Control Lists) are
only supported in version 6.1 and above.

Veritas 6.0 systems should be upgraded to 6.1 before installing NBMR.

For the new Licensing Manager to access the machine to be licensed, Cristie Deployment Service
must be started from the command line by entering #cds

Prerequisites:

ofpthread64libs-1.0.0

Open Source Prerequisites

ncurses >= 6.0

libxml2 >= 2.6.21

Screen >=4.0.3

libxslt >=1.1.5

zip >= 2.3

These are included with the installation and may also be downloaded from the IBM AIX Toolbox for
Linux website:
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/power/software/aix/linux/toolbox/download.html

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NBMR for AIX software 7

4 NBMR for AIX software


At the moment NBMR is supplied upon request. Please contact [email protected] in the first
instance. After successful evaluation you will then be provided with an FTP download link for the
installation package.

The installation is available in iso format.

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8 Bare Machine Recovery for EMC NetWorker

5 Installation
NBMR can be installed via the AIX System Management Interface - smit or smitty - directly via
RPM or from the archive. It is recommended that all installation files are installed using the same
method.

The installation of NBMR requires the RPM package management tool: fileset rpm.rte
3.0.5.20. This tool is installed by default on AIX ML6, 6.1 ML1 and AIX 7.1 and 7.2 MLI.

The version of this tool can be checked using the command 'lslpp -1 rpm.rte'. If the fileset is
at an earlier maintenance level, then the rpm.rte file can be downloaded individually from: http://
www-933.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/

5.1 Install via Smit/Smitty


NBMR can be installed via smit or smitty by selecting the fastpath 'install', for example by running:

> smitty install

The installation directory should be the '/bffs' directory on the CD or in the archive.

The prerequisites listed on the preceeding page are contained in the directory alongside NBMR and
are installed automatically.

Note: the smitty installation delegates to RPM. Therefore, if some packages have
already been installed via RPM then the latest version available is selected.

5.2 Install via RPM


NBMR can also be installed using the RPM package management tool. The RPM packages are
contained in the '/rpms' directory on the installation CD. As with the smitty installation, the open-
source prerequisites are contained in this directory alongside NBMR.

The versions of prerequisites may be checked using the command:

>rpm -q ncurses libxml2

To install the NBMR rpm package type:

>rpm -Uvh nbmr-8.1.1.p1.aix6.1.ppc64.rpm

5.3 License
Following the instructions in this section will result in a standard 30-day trial license being installed.
Cristie provide a 30 day trial license so that the product can be fully evaluated before purchase.

If you have purchased a full license, you will have been sent a contract identifier and activation code,
these can be used to activate the product with the licmgr tool as follows:

> licmgr -p nbmr \


> --cid GJ3ANQ4B-RYA8V4AP-5EVJT2GB-397TZYSX \
> --act YU5ZQCSR-C962R6YD-PYKKTSA5-ZFHJ7FKN

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Installation 9

Note the above codes are examples only - please use the activation codes sent to you. More
information about the licmgr tool can be found by typing 'man licmgr'.

5.4 Uninstall
To uninstall if installed via smit or smitty, run 'smit remove' or 'smitty remove', then select
the relevant packages for removal.

To uninstall the RPM package, enter:


> rpm -e nbmr-release

Note: uninstalling does NOT remove the nbmr-8.1.1 directory

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10 Bare Machine Recovery for EMC NetWorker

6 Product Licensing
When first installed, NBMR may be used for a trial period of 30 days. During that period NBMR is
fully functional. If the software is subsequently un-installed and later re-installed on the same
system, the 30 day period continues from the date of the first installation.

If you wish to use the software beyond the trial period, you must register and purchase a license
from Cristie Software Ltd.. Alternatively, and in special circumstances, Cristie Software Ltd. may
extend the license period if you wish to trial the software beyond that period.

If you purchase the product, then contract and license activation codes will be available on the
Cristie Licensing Portal. Together these codes will enable you to fully activate the product.

The following sections discuss this in more detail.

6.1 Trial License


A 30-day trial license commences from the date of installation. The NBMR configuration file
generator (nbmrcfg) will not run after this period expires.
You may use the Cristie License Manager to add or inspect license details at any time. This is
achieved by opening up a terminal and entering:

# licmgr -p nbmr

Entering this command, will display the Cristie License Manager, that shows Machine attributes,
Contract ID, the installed host System signature, the current Cristie product (NBMR in this case),
the product version, the trial end date and the licence Status.

The NBMR configuration file generator will become active again as soon as a full license has been
purchased from Cristie Software Ltd. and the new contract and activation codes entered via the
Cristie License Manager.

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Product Licensing 11

6.2 Full License


A Full license entitles the Customer to product support and upgrades for the duration of the license
period.

To upgrade from the trial license to a full license, you need to apply for a full license activation code
either via the Cristie Licensing Portal website or via the product Cristie License Manager. In either
case you will need to first register an account on the Cristie Licensing Portal (located at https://
portal.cristie.com/login). A Contract ID will be created and provided to you when you purchase a
license.

These are the various codes used in the Cristie licensing process:

Contract ID: A 4-digit number supplied by Cristie Software Ltd. Sales during the license purchase
process.
Agreement Number: Same as Contract ID at the moment.
Contract Code: 35-character contract code obtained from the Cristie Licensing Portal
Activation Code: 35-character support activation code obtained from the Cristie Licensing Portal

In special circumstances a 'bulk license' may be issued by Cristie Software Ltd. for customers that
order a significant number of product licenses. Please contact your Cristie sales representative if
you wish to discuss this service.

Note this discussion assumes that NBMR is already installed on a Customer production
machine.

6.2.1 Setting up a Cristie Licensing Portal account

To setup a new account on the Cristie Licensing Portal follow the following steps. To do this you will
need your 4-digit Contract ID and contract setup password. These will be provided by email from
Cristie Software Ltd. when you purchase a product license.

Note: Your Contract ID may have been supplied to you as your contract Agreement
Number. In that case please use your Agreement number in place of the Contract ID
throughout.

1. On a machine that has Internet access run a suitable browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer
and navigate to the Cristie Licensing Portal web page at https://portal.cristie.com/login.

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12 Bare Machine Recovery for EMC NetWorker

Select Register to create a new account. Enter your new account details (note this is an example):

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Product Licensing 13

Then click Create. If successful the following is shown.

At this point you may now log in to the Cristie Licensing Portal using the E-mail ID and password
setup in the previous steps.

6.2.2 Online Activation


The steps involved in activating the product automatically using the Cristie License Manager are
summarised below. This discussion assumes your contract is already setup on the Cristie Licensing
Portal and you have access to both Contract and Activation codes.

1. Assign your Contract code on the NBMR host machine, by opening up a terminal and entering:

# licmgr -p nbmr --cid xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx

(where xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx is your Contract code)

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14 Bare Machine Recovery for EMC NetWorker

2. Then licence NBMR by entering the command:

licmgt -p nbmr --cred [email protected],password

(The required email and password are the ones you use to sign into the Cristie Licensing Portal)

The Cristie License Manager will be refreshed showing your Contract ID, the new activation code and
your contract support end date.

Note: Internet access on the host machine is required to run the online activation
process from the Cristie License Manager directly.

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Product Licensing 15

6.2.3 Manual Activation


The steps involved in activating using the Cristie Licensing Portal are as follows. This discussion
assumes your contract is already setup on the Cristie Licensing Portal.

Licence NBMR by entering the command:

# licmgr -p nbmr --act xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx

(where xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx is your Activation code, which can be obtained by


signing into the Cristie Licensing Portal)

The Cristie License Manager will be refreshed showing your Contract ID, the new activation code and
your contract support end date.

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16 Bare Machine Recovery for EMC NetWorker

7 Creating a Recovery Image


As mentioned previously, all functionality can be accessed through the NBMR Graphical User
Interface. After entering the command 'nbmr', the NBMR Console menu is presented:

The first step is to create a recovery CD or PXE/NIM bootable image. This is an iso image that can
either be burned to CD to boot the recovery environment or be extracted to create a network boot
environment.

The terminal type can be specified here if a different terminal is desired on boot up. xterm is
recommended as it is compatible with most terminal emulation programs on Windows and UNIX.

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Creating a Recovery Image 17

The temporary directory is used to create the structure of the CD, which consequently is converted
to a file. The GUI creates an iso file which may be burned to a CD using an iso burning tool such as
burn_cd:
> burn_cd -d /dev/cd0 recovery_cd.iso

Note: the output log for CD creation is saved in '/var/log/cristie/mkdrcd.log'

7.1 PXE Booting


Alternatively, the CD can be extracted to create a PXE bootable environment. If the CD is extracted
to the directory '/recoverycd' then the PXE environment can be setup as follows:

Copy the file 'ppc/chrp/bootfile.exe' to the TFTP sever directory

Export '/recoverycd' over NFS

Create a DHCP/BOOTP entry for the machine with option 151 specifying the NFS server IP
address and 152 specifying the NFS server path

This is an example using ISC dhcpd under RedHat linux (/etc/dhcp/dhcp.conf):

> option aix-server code 151 = ip-address;


> option aix-path code 152 = text;
>
> host aix {
> filename "/bootfile.exe";
> option aix-server 192.168.1.100;
> option aix-path "/recoverycd";
> }

On an AIX NIM Master, the DHCP configuration itself ('/etc/dhcpsd.cnf') contains detailed
instructions to set up a host in the manner detailed above.

This is an example section of /etc/dhcpsd.cnf used to enable NIM booting of the recovery
environment for the machine with MAC address '01:02:03:04:05:06:07:08':

> supportBOOTP yes


>
> client 6 01:02:03:04:05:06:07:08 192.168.1.199 {
> option sa 192.168.1.100
> option hd /recoverycd/
> option bf bootfile.exe
> }

The attributes for the NFS server address and directory are set in a similar manner.

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18 Bare Machine Recovery for EMC NetWorker

Alternatively, the NFS server and directory may be set statically for the image by entering the full
address (ie. 10.10.14.90:/mnt/SPOT) or just a path (ie. /mnt/SPOT) into the NFS Server of the
dialogue:

Note: if this option is used, then the recovery environment attempts to boot from the NFS
server and directory given. If only a path is supplied then the recovery environment
attempts to use the boot server (either BOOTP or DHCP) and the path supplied. See the
auxilliary document "AIXBootingProcedures.pdf" for a more complete explanation"

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Performing a DR backup 19

8 Performing a DR backup
Performing a DR backup is split into four stages:

1. Record system information

2. Configure the backup location

3. Select the directories to be backed up

4. Perform the backup using EMC Network

The system information is recorded to allow the recovery environment to recreate the original system
environment. This will include drive and file-system information, as well as information about
essential packages for rebuilding the system (for example, to provide file encryption at recovery
time).

8.1 Recording System Information


The system information must be recorded and stored so that the system can be rebuilt at recovery
time. This is performed using the nbmrcfg tool, available through the System Configuration option
of the Graphical User Interface.

Selecting System Configuration from the main menu opens a sub-menu containing options for
creating the configuration:

The Options menu item includes Include SAN Devices: Yes/No. If this option is set to Yes then all
disks (including SAN attached disks) are parsed for inclusion in the configuration files. Only set this
options to No if you are certain that no volumes that you wish to recover are on SAN.
The default location of the configuration information is /NBMRCFG/disrec.xml.

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20 Bare Machine Recovery for EMC NetWorker

When running the configuration tool information, the current operations are displayed:

Once this operation is complete, the log fine can be found in /var/log/cristie/nbmrcfg.log.
This may also be viewed using the Log Files submenu.

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Performing a DR backup 21

8.2 Creating Networker Backup


To create a back up to your Networker server the following mounted partitions must be backed up as
a minimum:

savefs -v -s <NETWORKER_SERVER> <mounted partition>

/, /usr, /home, /var /opt

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22 Bare Machine Recovery for EMC NetWorker

9 Performing a Disaster Recovery


Recovery is divided into six stages:

1. VolumeGroups - create the required volume groups

2. LogicalVolumes - create the required logical volumes

3. FileSystems - create file-systems on the logical volumes created in the previous step

4. Mounting - mount the file-systems

5. Recovery - recover files from the backup

6. Make bootable - make the system bootable

Additional steps are required when Veritas Volume Manager is installed and Veritas Volume Groups
must be recovered, these are:

1. VXDisks - make disks available for use with Veritas.

2. VXGroups - create Veritas Volume Groups.

3. VXVolumes - create Veritas Volumes.

All stages are run though in order - consequently this can take a long time dependent upon the
speed of disks and network interfaces. Once the recovery is complete, the system can be rebooted
into its original state.

Before re-boot, however, it is very useful to make a copy of the log files generated during the
recovery as shown in Copying Log Files.

9.1 Starting the Recovery Environment


A recovery may be performed by booting into the recovery console from the recovery CD created
earlier. The environment initialises by attempting to acquire a network address via DHCP.

Once startup is complete, you must enter the username and password 'root' and 'root' to enter the
recovery environment. This is required to enable AIX multi-user support and allow the use of ctrl-c to
halt operations.

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Performing a Disaster Recovery 23

Note: if the 'screen' utility is installed, then this step is bypassed as screen provided its
own multi-user environment

Once complete, a dialogue is presented to change the network setup.

The network setup must be configured with the details of the machine backed up to the Networker
server.

For example the source machine to be backed up is configured as follows:-

IP Address: 10.10.22.3
Hostname aix61xxxxxx

Your network is configured:-

Subnet 255.0.0.0
Default Gateway 10.0.1.100
DNS 10.0.1.110

The above source machine values have been configured in the Networker Server hosts file and client
properties.

The setup network dialogue based on the above example is populated as below.

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24 Bare Machine Recovery for EMC NetWorker

Note: if no DNS entry is given, then all subsequent addresses MUST be given in dotted
decimal form

Once the network is setup, the Recovery Main Menu is presented:

This presents two recovery styles - automatic and manual - as well as tools for managing the
recovery environment and log files.

The automatic recovery runs through all stages of the recovery and only provides options to

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Performing a Disaster Recovery 25

recover just the root volume group or the whole machine

The manual recovery allows the option of recovering only selected volume groups and
running selected phases of the recovery individually

Note: if the graphical environment is unusable at this stage, for example if the currently
selected item appears to change unexpectedly, then the terminal type should be
changed. See the Trouble-shooting section for further details

9.1.1 Automatic Recovery Wizard


The Automatic Recovery Wizard takes you through the following steps in order:

1. Setup Network - if initial setup was unsatisfactory

2. Backup Location - specify the attributes of the location containing the backup

3. Configuration - read machine configuration information and set applicable options

4. Perform Recovery - start the recovery procedure

5. Copy Log Files - copy the log files generated by the recovery

Setup Network
The network can be setup for any interfaces found using manual configuration. This is a requirement
for the NBMR recovery environment.

The manual configuration step is exactly the same as the initial network setup in Starting the
Recovery Environment.

Backup Location
The Backup Location menu allows the user to setup the NetWorker client for access to the server.

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26 Bare Machine Recovery for EMC NetWorker

It is vitally important that the hostname and IP address of the client match that machine that was
backed up.

Note: if the server is specified by name, then a DNS server must have been chosen when setting up
the network. If DNS is not available then the Networker Server and Hostname can be entered as
below.

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Performing a Disaster Recovery 27

It is also possible to select the version to be restored: Instead of a particular version, the backup
may be recovered from a particular point in time.

Once the backup has been successfully setup, you can move to the next stage to setup the
configuration.

Configuration
Before recovery can begin, the machine configuration information created earlier must be loaded into
the recovery environment from the backup. This is performed by selecting the Restore
Configuration From Backup option:

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28 Bare Machine Recovery for EMC NetWorker

If the location of the configuration information was changed during Recording System Information,
you need to enter the location chosen here.

Selecting the Options item displays any additional options that can be applied at this point.

Create Minimum Size LVs: This option ensures that the logical volumes created are of the
smallest size such that the data to restore fits. This option is useful if you are recovering to a

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Performing a Disaster Recovery 29

machine with smaller disks.

Only Recover Root VG: By default, all volume groups are recovered. This option is useful in
situations where data is stored on a second data-only volume group which is not included in the
backup.

Keep going on non-root failures: By default all failures are considered fatal and immediately halt
a recovery. If this option is selected only failures that prevent the restoration of volumes and file-
systems directly associated with the root volume group halt a recovery.

Note: the minimum size calculation is performed when the configuration information is
recorded but it is re-calculated when the backup is accessed.

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30 Bare Machine Recovery for EMC NetWorker

The Edit Drive Mapping item is used to modify the disks that the backup is restored to. In the
example given, a system using two disks is mapped to a use only one disk during recovery. Should
the drive display spread over more than one screen you can navigate forwards Ctrl +N or the previous
page Ctrl +P

When recovering to fewer disks, any volume groups other than rootvg which cannot be re-created are
dropped. However, a volume group spanning more than one physical volume can be restored to a
single volume provided that volume has enough capacity. In the case of mirrored volume groups the
mirroring is split if the mapping indicates this.

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Performing a Disaster Recovery 31

The Edit Group Mapping item is used to modify the disks that the backup is restored to by
selecting which disks belong to which volume group. In the example given both disks are given to the
rootvg volume group and the testvg volume group is given one, so is not restored. The same rules for
recovering to fewer disks as were used for Edit Drive Mapping are used here.

Perform Recovery
Once the configuration has been restored, it is possible to start the recovery. When this option is
selected, the backup location is tested and a confirmation dialogue presented:

Note: as soon as the automatic recovery is started, ALL data is destroyed on the disks
being recovered to

Once the recovery is complete, you are presented with a dialogue indicating that the machine can
be rebooted:

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32 Bare Machine Recovery for EMC NetWorker

Copy Logs
Once the recovery is complete, a menu is opened containing options for viewing and copying the log
files.

The Summary Log Files item is used to present a summary of the warnings, errors and
informational items that occurred during the recovery for immediate inspection.

Copying the log files to an NFS share allows any problems encountered during recovery and

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Performing a Disaster Recovery 33

subsequent reboot to be diagnosed more quickly.

9.1.2 Manual Recovery


Manual recovery presents the stages performed during automatic recovery to be applied
individually, but also allows you to 'Import from Host', which attempts to load file-systems from the
current machine. This can be useful to continue an aborted recovery, or to retrieve information off a
system which no longer boots.

The options in the manual recovery menu are shown as follows:

Setup
The setup menu allows you to setup networking (exactly as the first stage of automatic recovery),
setup the backup location (exactly as the second stage of automatic recovery) and mount an NFS
volume.

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34 Bare Machine Recovery for EMC NetWorker

Configuration
The configuration menu allows you to restore the configuration from backup, select which Volume
Groups should be restored and modify configuration options.

This menu allows you to control precisely which volume groups should be restored. This is in
contrast to the options provided for automatic recovery, which only allow restoration of all volume
groups, or just the root.

Test Backup Location

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Performing a Disaster Recovery 35

The third option allows you to test the backup location for connectivity before performing a restore. It
is recommended that this step is always performed before recovering a system.

Running a single recovery phase


If a problem occurs during recovery, it may be desirable to attempt to run a single recovery phase.
This option allows you to select a single phase and run it on its own.

Note: running an earlier phase after a later phase, such as running LogicalVolumes after
Restore, will RESET ANY WORK DONE BY THE LATER PHASE. You will therefore have
to run the remaining phases as well to complete the restore

Running between two recovery phases


The 'Run between two phases' menu option allows you to run all phases, inclusively, between two
selections. In the following example, the restore is being run from creation of the logical volumes to
the mounting of file-systems:

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36 Bare Machine Recovery for EMC NetWorker

This option may be used to restart a stalled recovery from the next phases to run until completion.
For example, if the recovery stopped at the FileSystems stage, then running from Mounting to
MakeBootable should result in a fully restored system.

Additionally, there is a special option which attempts to work out the last known phase:

This option is useful if it is not clear why the recovery stopped.

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Performing a Disaster Recovery 37

9.1.3 Post Recovery Changes


The Post Recovery Changes menu, accessed from the Tools menu, provides the option to copy
the current network settings to the recovered machine.

This is a useful option if you are cloning or moving a recovered machine.

9.1.4 Trouble-shooting
Recovery:
If the automatic recovery fails at any point, then it may be possible to continue to recover the system
by continuing the recovery at the next phase.

For example, if the recovery fails with the following error:

> Disrec::ERROR "The following commands failed in the last phase run"
> ...
> Disrec::ERROR "Review the logs and correct any errors before proceeding
> Disrec::ERROR "to the next phase (MOUNTING)"

Then it may be possible to get a working system by running the phases from Mounting until the final
phase, MakeBootable.

All phases between Mounting and MakeBootable may be run by selecting Run Between Two
Phases and selecting the Mounting and MakeBootable phases. If preferred, the phases may be run
individually by selecting Run Single Phase.

Once the final phase, MakeBootable, has been run then it is possible to reboot the machine.
However, we recommend copying log files to an accessible location (to an NFS server for example)
before performing the reboot.

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38 Bare Machine Recovery for EMC NetWorker

Terminal:
The recovery environment uses the terminal 'aixterm' by default. However, for some displays or
hardware this is not always appropriate. If the terminal is unusable, for example if the menu-options
do not correctly line up, then it may be desirable to change the terminal type. This can be performed
by selecting 'Exit to Shell' and running the environment using a different terminal.

Typing 'terms' produces a list of the terminals available. However, is typically quite long, it may be
useful to try one of the following common terminal types first:

xterm

vt102

vt100

lft

For example, typing 'TERM=vt100 dr' restarts the recovery environment using the vt100 terminal
type.

If using Putty as the terminal emulator selecting ISO-8859-1:1998 as the remote character set
can help correct character translation issues:

9.1.5 Copying Log Files


Once the recovery is complete, it is advised that you copy the log files to a suitable location before
rebooting the system. It is recommended that you mount an NFS share and copy the log files to that
location. These actions are performed using the 'Log Files' option from the main menu:

The Copy Log Files option asks for a location and creates a date-stamped archive of the logs in the
directory given.

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Performing a Disaster Recovery 39

The log files are created with a filename in the form:

>logs-12:54-10092010.tar.gz

Note: it is important that the directory selected is an NFS mount, as all information in the
recovery environment is lost on reboot

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40 Bare Machine Recovery for EMC NetWorker

10 Cristie Technical Support


If you have any queries or problems concerning your Bare Machine Recovery for EMC NetWorker
product, please contact Cristie Technical Support. To assist us in helping with your enquiry, make
sure you have the following information available for the person dealing with your call:

NBMR Version Number


Installed OS type and version
Any error message information (if appropriate)
Description of when the error occurs
All Cristie log files relating to the source or recovery machine. This is very important to help us
provide a quick diagnosis of your problem

Contact Numbers - Cristie Software (UK) Limited

Technical Support +44 (0) 1453 847 009


Toll-Free US Number 1-866-TEC-CBMR (1-866-832-2267)
Knowledgebase kb.cristie.com
Sales Enquiries [email protected]
Email [email protected]
Web www.cristie.com

Support Hours

05:00 to 17:00 Eastern Standard Time (EST) Monday to Friday

Out-of-Hours support available to customers with a valid Support Agreement - Severity 1 issues* only

UK Bank Holidays** classed as Out-of-Hours - Severity 1 issues only.

*Severity 1 issues are defined as: a production server failure, cannot perform recovery or actual loss
of data occurring.
**For details on dates of UK Bank Holidays, please see www.cristie.com/support/

Cristie Software Ltd. are continually expanding their product range in line with the latest
technologies. Please contact the Cristie Sales Office for the latest product range.

Copyright © 2003-2017 Cristie Software Ltd.

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