Michael Vilain wrote:
> In article <EeSdnaAQNJRH8inanZ2dnUVZ8h6dnZ2d@bt.com>, "a" <b> wrote:
>
>> Hi Gurus
>>
>> I have a sun V210 server running a variety of apps. I generally do my
>> backups using standard unix tools (cpio). I would like your views on the
>> best method for backing up a sun server for disaster recovery purpouses. I
>> would like a straight forward one step process for re-creating myu server
>> should i loose a disk or should the whole thing be crushed by a 10 ton lorry
>> and needs to be set up on another bit if hardware.
>>
>> many thanks
>> #regards
>> dean
>
> Here's some general guidelines:
>
> Solaris doesn't have a "bare metal restore" bootable tape akin to mksysb
> on AIX or the Ignite bootable tape, so you'll have to rebuild from
> install media. The standard practice is to keep the installation media,
> printouts of any volume layouts and patches installed, copies of any
> software and license keys (e.g. Veritas Volume Manager--VxVM), and
> hardcopy of other system information (DNS, router, printers, etc.). Oh,
> and you'll need a full set of your last full backup plus the most recent
> differential incremental.

I would say that "standard practice" nowadays is more like having a
jumpstart server and use some Flash Archive scenario for getting the
system to a predefined state including licenses, software, patches etc.
After each system change you just make a new archive. Keep a couple with
revisions and you can roll back to a working one quickly. After that you
can just roll back user data from the backup system.

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/content/...sh_archive.jsp is one
start...


> If you're restoring the system to the same hardware, just with disks
> replaced, boot from install media, layout the system disks the way they
> were in the original (or change them if they need larger slices--this is
> the perfect time to do that). Load the OS, install all patches, install
> and setup any volume manager, configure volumes the way they were or
> "upgrade them". Install the 3rd-party applications (e.g. Oracle).
> Restore the data.

If you're doing that by hand you're probably out of work before you're
finished. It takes too long compared to automate it.

> Oh, and the standard tool for backups and restore on Solaris is
> ufsbackup and ufsrestore for UFS filesystems.

It is?

If you're using VxVM,
> it's their version of backup and restore.

What? VxVM is the volume manager...

If you're using a 3rd-party
> backup tool like Netbackup or Networker, you'll need to have the backup
> server up and running before restoring the data from your tapes (along
> with a license for the backup software in your box).
>
> If you're restoring to a different system than the one that's dead (e.g.
> different architecture or hardware model entirely), make sure the
> restored system will run on it before disaster strikes. If you have no
> control over what machine you'll get in the event of an full disaster
> restore, you've got bigger problems that need solving first than the
> "how to".
>
> All this is different of course if you're not using tape backups. But
> you knew that. I leave the step by step writing up to you. Good luck.
>