2008/12/26

Backing Up and Restoring the Solaris OS With "ufsdump"

Backing Up and Restoring the Solaris OS With "ufsdump"

This Tech Tip describes a backup and restore procedure for the Solaris 8 or 9 Operating System

using the ufsdump command.
Backing Up the OS

1. For this example, we are using c0t0d0s0 as a root partition. Bring the system into single-user mode (recommended).
# init -s
2. Check the partition consistency.
# fsck -m /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0
3. Verify the tape device status:
# mt status
Or use this command when you want to specify the raw tape device, where x is the interface:
# mt -f /dev/rmt/x status
4. Back up the system:
a) When the tape drive is attached to your local system, use this:
# ufsdump 0uf /dev/rmt/0n /
b) When you want to back up from disk to disk, for example, if you want to back up c0t0d0s0 to c0t1d0s0:
# mkdir /tmp/backup
# mount /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s0 /tmp/backup
# ufsdump 0f - / (cd /tmp/backup;ufsrestore xvf -)
c) When you want to back up to a remote tape, use this. On a system that has a tape drive, add the following line to its /.rhosts file:hostname root where hostname is the name or IP of the system that will run ufsdump to perform the backup. Then run the following command:
# ufsdump 0uf remote_hostname:/dev/rmt/0n /

Restoring the OS
1. For this example, your OS disk is totally corrupted and replaced with a new disk. Go to the ok prompt and boot in single-user mode from the Solaris CD.
ok> boot cdrom -s
2. Partition your new disk in the same way as your original disk.
3. Format all slices using the newfs command. For example:
# newfs /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0
4. Make a new directory in /tmp:
# mkdir /tmp/slice0
5. Mount c0t0d0s0 into /tmp/slice0:
# mount /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 /tmp/slice0
6. Verify the status of the tape drive:
# mt status
If the tape drive is not detected, issue the following command:
# devfsadm -c tape
or# drvconfig
# tapes
# devlinks
Verify the status of tape drive again and make sure the backup tape is in the first block or file number is zero. Use the following command to rewind the backup tape:
# mt rewind
7. Go into the /tmp/slice0 directory and you can start restoring the OS.
# cd /tmp/slice0
# ufsrestore rvf /dev/rmt/0n
If you want to restore from another disk (such as c0t1d0s0), use the following command:
# mkdir /tmp/backup
# mount /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s0 /tmp/backup
# ufsdump 0f - /tmp/backup (cd /tmp/slice0;ufsrestore xvf -)
8. After restoring all the partitions successfully, install bootblock to make the disk bootable. This example assumes your /usr is located inside the "/" partition:
# cd /tmp/slice0/usr/platform/'uname -m'/lib/fs/ufs
# installboot bootblk /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0
9. To finish restoring your OS, reboot the system.

Performance Forensics

Performance Forensics
Description: This article discusses how to address system-performance complaints with predictable and accurate results

http://www.sun.com/solutions/blueprints/1203/817-4...

Beginners Guide to LDoms: Understanding and Deploying Logical Domains

Beginners Guide to LDoms: Understanding and Deploying Logical Domains

Description: This stuff is intended to assist the reader in gaining an understanding of how to easily and effectively deploy Sun's Logical Domains, or LDoms1, technology. It will help the reader determine how and where to use logical domains to the greatest effect using best practices. It discusses strategies for deploying logical domains on the Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 systems, the first systems to offer Logical Domain support, and the various best practices for these platforms. The guide works through step-by-step examples that include the commands to set up, deploy, and manage logical domains and looks at commonly asked questions and advanced techniques.
http://www.sun.com/blueprints/0207/820-0832.pdf