Backing up and Restore the VIOS to tape

For Backup the vios to tape

We can back up the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) base code, applied fix packs, custom device drivers to support disk subsystems, and some user-defined metadata to tape.


To back up the VIOS to tape, complete the following steps:

1.    Assign a tape drive to the VIOS.

2.    Get the device name by entering the following command from the VIOS command line:
                                         #lsdev -type tape

If the tape device is in the Defined state, enter the following command from the VIOS command line, where dev is the name of your tape device:
                                         #cfgdev -dev dev

3.    Enter the following command from the VIOS command line, where tape_device is the name of the tape device that you want to back up to:
                                         #backupios -tape tape_device

This command creates a bootable tape that you can use to restore the VIOS.

Note: If we plan to restore the VIOS to a different system from which it was backed up, we need to back up the user-defined virtual devices.

For Restoring the vios to from tape

We can restore the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) base code, applied fix packs, custom device drivers to support disk subsystems, and some user-defined metadata from tape.

To restore the VIOS from tape, complete the following steps:

1.    Specify the VIOS virtual server to boot from the tape by using the bootlist command. Alternatively, you can change the bootlist in the System Management Services (SMS).

2.    Insert the tape into the tape drive.

3.    From the SMS menu, select to install from the tape drive.

4.    Follow the installation steps according to the system prompts.

Note: If you restored the VIOS to a different host from which it was backed up, restore the user-defined virtual devices