Back up and recover a logical partition

 

iSeries™ integration of a logical partition combines two operating systems (i5/OS^® and the logical operating system). You may be able to use i5/OS or Linux utilities or a combination of both to manage back ups.

When you are planning your back up strategy, refer to Backup and Recovery, as well as Linux documentation. For information on backing up and recovering Linux partitions on eServer™ 5800 servers, refer to Backup and Recover Linux Installations.

• Backup options for virtual and directly attached disk
  Read to learn about backup options for virtual and directly attached disks for Linux and i5/OS utilities.

• How to use the shared, read-only storage space
  Learn how to read data from a shared storage space.

• Sharing access to disks in read-write mode
  Learn how to share access to disks in read-write mode.

• How to quickly clone Linux servers in iSeries partitions
  The use of virtual devices (disk and network) reduces the number of hardware devices that you need to attach directly to a Linux partition in order to clone a Linux partition on one iSeries server and restore it to the same or another iSeries server without reconfiguring the hardware in Linux.

• Save and restore hosted Linux files to and from the host's shared tape drive
  To save hosted Linux data to a shared tape drive and restore the data from the tape drive, you can use either the Linux tar command or the i5/OS Save Object (SAV) and Restore Object (RST) commands.

• Save logical partition configuration data
  Logical partition configuration data is automatically maintained for the life of the physical server.

• Back up the NWSD and disk drives associated with a logical partition
  When you install the logical partitions with virtual disk on iSeries, the hosting i5/OS partition creates a network server description and disk drives for your logical operating system that you need to back up. Some of the disk drives are server-related (the installation and server drives); others are user-related. Because your logical operating system may consider them a unified server, you need to save all the disk drives and the network server description to restore properly.

• Build a rescue image on an NWSSTG
  One rescue solution for a logical partition is to create a small network storage space (NWSSTG) that can be left on the IFS solely for the purpose of rescuing logical partitions.

• Use a rescue image from an NWSSTG
  A rescue image contains the minimal version of all the basic diagnostic tools, drivers and other utilities that would be useful for checking a previously existing logical partition.

• Back up NWSDs for a logical partition
  When you save the storage space objects that are associated with a logical partition virtual disks on iSeries server, you also need to save the network server description (NWSD). Otherwise, a logical partition may not be able to reestablish items such as the partitions file system permissions.

• Restore NWSDs for a logical partition
  In a disaster recovery situation, you would restore all the configuration objects, which include the network server description (NWSD) for your logical partition.

• Unlink disk drives from a logical partition
  Unlinking Linux virtual disk drives (network server storage spaces) disconnects them from the logical partition, making them inaccessible to users. You also need to unlink disk drives if you are uninstalling a logical partition.

• Objects to save and their location on i5/OS
  Many objects are created as a result of installing a logical operating system in a partition and using virtual storage.

 

Parent topic:

Managing Linux in a logical partition