Abstract: This document explains best practices and methods for disk-to-

removable disk backup and restore of files on the AIX and Linux Power Platforms
using the new USB Removable Disk Drive for Backup/Restore. The backup and
restore are done using standard AIX and Linux commands.

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Disk-to-disk backup and restore of files on
the AIX and Linux Power Platforms using
the new USB Removable Disk Drive for
Backup/Restore.

© COPYRIGHT IBM CORPORATION, 2009.

Introduction:
Often the main backup method for a system is to a tape drive data cartridge.
The USB Removable Disk Drive for Backup/Restore can offer a comparable
long term cost alternative to using tape drive data cartridges(The customer
should consider benefits of each solution including the initial costs and the
long term costs of each solution in their determination of which to use). The
USB Removable Disk Drive for Backup/Restore offers fast access to the
previously stored data verses a tape drive data cartridge.
The USB Removable Disk Drive for Backup/Restore accomplishes the backup
and restore process using standard AIX and Linux commands. The system
administrator is already familiar with these commands, this solution does not
introducing new complexity to the backup/restore process.

Benefits of Disk-to-Removable Disk Backups:

Disk-to-Removable Disk backup using the USB Removable Disk Drive for
Backup/Restore has many benefits when used with AIX or Linux:

- Easily installed in an existing half high media bay in many Power Systems
or externally via an external USB port on a Power System.
- The USB Removable Disk Drive cartridge is as easily installed and
removed from the USB Removable Disk Drive dock as a tape data
cartridge without the delay in load or unload time found with many tape
drives.
- AIX supports this device with many of the same commands used to
backup data to a tape drive, such as:
o mksysb
o Backup and restore
o tar
o dd
o cpio
- AIX mksysb images backed up to the USB removable disk drive for
backup/restore are directly bootable from the SMS menu.
- Linux supports the USB Removable Disk Drive for Backup/Restore as a
standard disk drive, using standard Linux commands for copy, backup and
restore.
- Eliminates the need for cleaning cartridges required for tape drives.
- Less effected by harsh environments which effect tape drives(dusty, high
traffic areas), such as found in some office environments.
- Can repeatedly be used for small repetitive backups or large daily, weekly
or monthly backups.
- Compliments a tape backup solution for those customers requiring both
tape and disk backup solutions.
- System administrators are already familiar with copying files and the
Universal Disk Format(UDF) file system.

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-
- Data compression can be done on the AIX system prior to putting the data
on the USB Removable Disk Drive for Backup/Restore which could double
the capacity, assuming a 2:1 compression(data dependent).
- USB 2.0 compatible.
- Relative data rate is approximately 20 MB/s* compared to some low end
tape drives that are approximately 6 to 12 MB/s. *This is an optimal rate
that is command and system dependent.

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Requirements:
- A Power System(p6)
- AIX
o AIX AIX 5.3 with the 5300-11 Technology Level, or later.
o AIX 6.1 with the 6100-04 Technology Level, or later.
- Linux
o SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 2, or later.
o SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, or later.
o Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 4.7 or later.
o Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 or later
- An internal(IBM Feature Code 1103) or external(IBM Feature Code 1104)
- A 160GB RDX data cartridge(IBM Feature Code 1106, IBM P/N 46C5375),
or a 320GB RDX data cartridge(IBM P/N 46C5377) or a 500GB RDX data
cartridge(IBM Feature Code 1107, IBM P/N 46C5379).
- Supported USB cables:
o The only supported cables are the USB cables supplied with the
USB removable disk drive for backup/restore. The USB removable
disk drive for backup/restore is not supported on any other USB
cables or in combination with other USB cables.
- Hubs/port replicators are not supported for attach of the USB removable
disk drive for backup/restore
- Supported USB ports/adapters:
o The integrated USB ports on the p6 system are all supported for
attach of the external USB removable disk drive for backup/restore
o The 4 port PCIe USB adapter IBM feature code 2728 is supported
for attach of the external USB removable disk drive for
backup/restore

Planning your backup/restore strategy:

You must decide if you are going to use only the USB removable disk drive for
backup/restore as the primary backup solution or use a combination of disk
and tape backup solutions.

The USB Removable Disk Drive for Backup/Restore is NOT a

replacement for your system disk drives:
- The USB Removable Disk Drive for Backup/Restore product is a backup and
restore device only. The device is not a replacement or alternative to Disk
Drives and other devices intended for on-line or near on-line storage.

Understanding the USB Removable Disk Drive for Backup/Restore

product:
AIX uses the USB Removable Disk Drive for Backup/Restore product differently
depending on the program being used:
- The AIX mksysb process builds a list of files to backup, populates a UDF file
system, puts a boot image, and puts the root vg on the data cartridge. Once
the mksysb completes the USB Removable Disk Drive for Backup/Restore
product can be used to boot the system.
If a display of the file system is done during the mksysb process the mounted
file system can be seen:

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 /dev/usbms0 312571556 312552452 1% 4776 1% /tmp/mksysb.426214/_udfs.426214
If you mount the USB Removable Disk Drive for Backup/Restore product
you can display and copy files to and from the UDF file system on the data
cartridge.
- The AIX tar, backup/restore, dd, and cpio use the USB Removable Disk Drive
for Backup/Restore product as a sequential device meaning they do not put a
file system on the USB Removable Disk Drive for Backup/Restore product.
However these commands can be used in conjunction with the UDF file
system put on the data cartridge by a mksysb and subsequently mounted.

Using the USB Removable Disk Drive for Backup/Restore:

User Commands: USB Removable Disk Drive for Backup/Restore product is

not a tape and does not behave like a tape, it is not possible to put filemarks
on it and thus fast forward to put another image. It is used more like DVD.

AIX

Note: User may see increase performance and decrease backup time by doing one or
more of the following:
o Use the drive as a “raw” device such as rusbms0 vs usbms0.
o Use a large blocking factor such as the “–b512” with the mksysb or the –N512
with the tar command, By increasing the blocking factor AIX reduces the number
of writes it takes to write the data to the data cartridge.
o The "kernel_heap_psize" tunable value to increase the default variable to 64KB if
it is not at least this size already.

Generate a system backup

- To generate a system backup and create an /image.data file (generated by the mkszfile
command) to a UDFS capable device named /dev/usbms0, enter the following command:

mksysb -i /dev/usbms0

Smit to make a bootable disk drive

- Smit can be used to create a bootable disk with or without specific files. Do the
following steps to create a bootable disk drive by selecting the following path with root
authorization:

smitty (enter)

Software Installation and Maintenance (enter)

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 Alternate Disk Installation (enter)

Clone the rootvg to an Alternate Disk (enter)

List the contents of a system backup

-To list the contents of the system backup located on device /dev/usbms0, use the
following command:

listvgbackup -f /dev/usbms0
lsmksysb -f /dev/usbms0
lssavevg -f /dev/usbms0
lssavewpar -f /dev/usbms0

Sample backup commands:

- To backup all the files in the /etc directory:
cd /etc
ls | backup -ivqf /dev/usbms0

- To backup all the files and subdirectories in the /home directory using full path names:
find /home -print | backup -i -f /dev/usbms0

- To backup all the files and subdirectories in the /home/mikectory directory using
relative path names
cd /home/mikectory
find . -print | backup -i -v -q -f /dev/usbms0

- To backup the / (root) file system

cd /
backup -0 –u –f /dev/usbms0
back up a file with “backup”
cd /tmp
echo ./cdi_0844A_61F | time backup –iqvf /dev/usbms0

Sample restore commands:

The Restore Command extracts files from archives created with the backup command.
- To display a list of all the files backed up from /etc directory:
cd /etc
restore -Tvqf /dev/usbms0

- To restore a specific file

restore -xvqf /dev/usbms0 myhome.bkup system.data

- To restore a specific directory and the contents of that directory from a file-
name archive

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 tar -vtf /dev/usbms0

- To restore a specific file:

cd /tmp
mkdir -p readback
cd readback
restore -xqvf /dev/usbms0

Sample Backup to add files after backing up the root file system with a mksysb:
- To add files to a file system on the usbms it is necessary to mount the file
system that was previously created, then either copy, backup, tar, dd, or cpio
the additional files to the mounted file system.
mount -v udfs /dev/usbms0 /mnt
(note that the mksysb would be /mnt/usr/sys/inst.images/mksysb_image)
tar –cvf /mnt/usr/whatever /whatever

Sample tar commands:

- To do a system backup with tar
cd /
tar -cvf /dev/usbms0 /

- To "tar" a directory:
tar -cvf /dev/usbms0 /usr

- To restore a directory from a "tar" backup:

tar -xvf /dev/usbms0

Compare files:
- To compare the original and the copy file use the AIX command "cmp".
cmp /tmp/cdi_0844A_61F /tmp/readback/cdi_0844A_61F
The "cmp" command completes without errors and without showing a difference.
Cleanup:
cd /tmp
rm -r ./readback

Backup the uservg

- To back up the uservg volume group to the UDFS capable device /dev/usbms0, enter
the following command:

savevg -i -f /dev/usbms0

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Backup a workload partition
- To back up the wpar2 workload partition and create a new
/tmp/wpardata/userwpar/image.data file to the UDFS capable device /dev/usbms0, enter
the following command:

savewpar -f /dev/usbms0 wpar2

Restore the workload partition

-To restore the workload partition image from the /dev/usbms0 device, enter the
following command:

restwpar -f /dev/usbms0

Restore a partition
- To read the backup stored at /dev/usbms0 and restore all files to the /data/myfiles
directory, enter the following command:

restorevgfiles -f /dev/usbms0 -s -d /data/myfiles

restwparfiles -f /dev/usbms0 -s -d /data/myfiles

Restore the volume group image

- To restore the volume group image from the /dev/usbms0 device, onto the disks
specified in the vgname.data file contained within the backup image, enter the following
command:

restvg -f /dev/usbms0

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Display size of the disk cartridge in the dock
- To display the size of a disk cartridge in the dock

getconf DISK_SIZE /dev/usbms0

returns:
152623 indicates a 160 GB drive
or
305241 indicates a 320 GB drive
or
476936 indicates a 500 GB drive

Display drive and dock information

- To display drive and dock information
lsattr -El usbms0

Linux

Commands to dislplay drives:

 To display the USB devices

lsscsi | grep -i usb

Note: lsscsi must be installed.

 To display the USB devices

lsusb
 To display the USB device verbose details
lsusb -v
or
lsusb -v | more
 To display the disks on the system
fdisk -l

Commands to write a backup to the drive.

Sample backup commands:

Note: The -b on the backup increases the blocking factor on the write and and
using a -b 500 can reduce the time it takes to backup the files.

To backup all the files in the / and sub directories

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  cd /
 find / -print | backup -i -q -b 500 -f /dev/sbx

To backup all the files in the /etc directory:

 cd /etc
 ls | backup -ivq -b 500 -f /dev/sbx

To backup all the files and subdirectories in the /home directory using full path
names:

 find /home -print | backup -i -f /dev/sbx

To backup all the files and subdirectories in the /home/mikectory directory using
relative path names

 cd /home/mikectory
 find . -print | backup -i -v -q -f /dev/sbx

To backup the / (root) file system

 cd /
 backup -0 -u -f /dev/sbx
 back up a file with "backup"
 cd /tmp
 echo ./cdi_0844A_61F | time backup -iqvf /dev/sbx

Sample restore commands:

The Restore Command extracts files from archives created with the backup command.

To display a list of all the files backed up from /etc directory:

 cd /etc
 restore -Tvqf /dev/sbx

To restore a specific file

 restore -xvqf /dev/sbx myhome.bkup system.data

To restore a specific file:

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  cd /tmp
 mkdir -p readback
 cd readback
 restore -xqvf /dev/sbx

Sample cpio commands:

To backup all the files in a directory and sub directories:

 cd /
 find . -print | cpio -ov >/dev/sbx

Sample tar commands:

Note: The -N on the backup increases the blocking factor on the write and and using a -
N500 can reduce the time it takes to backup the files.

To do a system backup with tar

 cd /
 tar -cvf /dev/sbx /

To "tar" a directory:

 tar -cvf /dev/sbx /usr

To restore a directory from a "tar" backup:

 tar -xvf /dev/sbx

To restore a specific directory and the contents of that directory from a file-name
archive

 tar -vtf /dev/sbx

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Create a UDF file system and mount the drive.

AIX:

 Create a filesystem on the RDX

udfcreate -d /dev/usbms0
 To mount the filesystem.
mount -v udfs /dev/usbms0 /mnt
 To label the UDF filesystem on the usbms0 drive:
udflabel -d /dev/usbms0 -l removabledisk

Linux:

 Create a filesystem on the RDX

$mkfs ›t ext2 /dev/sdf "Where /dev/sdf is the device that represents the RDX "

Note: The file system doesn't have to be ext2, it can be other filesystems such as
ext3, reiserfs, etc

 Create a directory
$mkdir rdx_drive
 Then mount the directory to the target device
$mount /dev/sdf rdx_drive
 Assuming that you are just copying files over to the RDX so that is a simple copy
command
$cp file(s) rdx_drive
 Display the files on the RDX?
Use the list command "ls"
$ls rdx_drive/*
 To eject the Disk Drive first unmount the device
$umount rdx_drive
 A mount of the device without any Disk Drive's in the Dock will get a "mount:
No medium found" error
$mount /dev/sdf rdx_drive/
mount: No medium found

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