Restoring the Virtual I/O Server by 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:

Ensure that the system to which you plan to transfer the mksysb image is running AIX®.
Ensure that the system running AIX has a DVD-RW or CD-RW drive.
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:

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
```
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
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.
Write the mksysb image to CD or DVD using the mkcd or mkdvd commands.
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.

Last updated: Thu, October 15, 2020