Recovering IBM Power® Virtualization Center data

Edit online

Use the powervc-restore command to recover PowerVC data that was previously backed up so you can restore to a working state after data corruption or a disaster.

Before you begin any restore steps, ensure that your target system is properly prepared:
  • The backup archive can only be restored to a system that is running the same level of PowerVC as the system from which the backup was taken.
    Note: The restore can be done to a system with a different hardware architecture than the backup.
  • The new environment should duplicate the original user environment, such as adding users and groups that are assigned roles in PowerVC. Otherwise, PowerVC users will not be available after the restore.
  • When restoring PowerVC backup on another PowerVC system, make sure the system does not have any existing resources.

The backup process does not back up SSL certificates and associated configuration information. A restored PowerVC environment uses the configuration that existed within the PowerVC environment before the restore operation, not the configuration of the environment from which the backup was taken. Keep in mind this consideration when you are selecting an environment on which to restore.

The powervc-restore command is in the /opt/ibm/powervc/bin/ directory. For details about the syntax and options, run powervc-restore --help.

Important: Most PowerVC services are stopped and all other users are logged off from PowerVC until the operation completes.
Complete the following steps to restore PowerVC data.
  1. Ensure that the user has sufficient sudo privileges configured to perform execution of this command and read access to the files.
  2. Open a command-line interface to the operating system on the virtual machine on which IBM® PowerVC is installed.
  3. Navigate to the /opt/ibm/powervc/bin/ directory.
  4. Run the powervc-restore command with any needed options.
    If prompts are not suppressed, respond to them as needed.
    Example of the command with no prompts and a non-default target directory:
    powervc-restore --noprompt --targetdir=/tmp/backups
Note: If an error occurs while running powervc-restore, check for errors in the powervc-restore logs in /opt/ibm/powervc/log.
When the restore operation completes, PowerVC runs with all the data from the targeted backup file.