Using an ios_mksysb resource

An ios_mksysb resource represents a file that is a system backup image created by using the backupios command from a Virtual I/O Server (VIOS). The ios_mksysb resource can be used as the source for the installation of VIOS or the installation of an Integrated Virtualization Management (IVM) client management system.

The ios_mksysb image must reside on the hard disk of a system in the Network Installation Management (NIM) environment to be defined as a resource. The ios_mksysb image cannot reside on a tape or other external media. The VIOS media contains a system backup file. This file must be copied from the media onto the hard disk of a system in the NIM environment. The ios_mksysb image on the VIOS media is split into multiple files due to the file size constraint of the physical VIOS media. The split mksysb files must be joined together when copied from media to the hard disk of the system. The following example shows the VIOS media mounted in the /mnt directory.

cat /mnt/nimol/ioserver_res/mksysb \
/mnt/nimol/ioserver_res/mksysb2 > /export/mksysb/vio_mksysb

The mksysb image can be split across multiple VIOS media. In which case, the mksysb image must be joined into a single mksysb file by using the cat command that is described in the previous example from a multivolume VIOS media.

An ios_mksysb resource can be defined from an image that already exists on the hard disk of the NIM master or on any NIM client. If such an image does not exist, the image can be created when the resource is defined. To create the image when the resource is defined, specify the name of the NIM client that is the source for the backup, and set the mk_image attribute to yes in the command to define the ios_mksysb resource. To exclude the /var/vio/VMLibrary file from the VIOS backup image, use the backupios_flags attribute set to the -nomedialib value. See the help information for the backupios command on the VIOS for acceptable flags when using the ios_mksysb command.