Volume device type support for an image backup
This topic lists several devices that are supported by the backup image command.
The following table lists the devices that are supported by the backup image command. A raw device might be a disk slice, a partition, or a logical volume.
| Logical volume manager | Raw device types | Sample device name | Backup image command support |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIX® Logical Volume Mgr | Logical Volumes | /dev/lv00 | AIX |
| Sun Solstice DiskSuite Volume Manager | Metadevices | /dev/md/dsk/dl | Solaris |
| Solaris Volume Manager | Metadevices | /dev/md/dsk/dl | Solaris |
| Veritas Volume Mgr | Logical Volumes |
/dev/vx/dsk/rootdg/vol01
- AIX /dev/vg00/lvol01 - Solaris |
Solaris
AIX |
| Raw Disk | Partitions | /dev/hda1
/dev/sda3
/dev/dasd<x>x
|
All Linux
|
| Raw Disk | Disk devices | /dev/sda
/dev/mapper/mpathX
/dev/dasd<x>
|
All Linux
|
| Linux® Logical Volume Mgr | Logical Volumes |
/dev/myvolgroup/
myvolume |
All Linux
|
| Raw Disk | Disk Slices | /dev/dsk/c0tld0s0 | Solaris |
For raw devices, the backup-archive client backs up the volume on an as-is basis. That is, no snapshot is taken, and applications can continue to write to the volume while it is being backed up. IBM® Storage Protect cannot guarantee the consistency of the data when backing up at the physical disk level; corruption can occur if the data on the volume is changing while the backup is in progress.
The client must support the raw device type on the specific platform in order to perform an image backup of a raw device. If you want to perform an image backup for a file system mounted on a raw device, the raw device must be supported. Remember to specify raw devices by their block device name.
For the Linux clients, image backup is only supported on partitions with id 0x83 or logical volumes that are created with the Linux Logical Volume Manager. Backing up other partitions, such as extended partitions that contain mounted file systems or database data, might produce inconsistent backup data if the data changes during the image backup operation.
For Linux clients on z Systems®, image backup of DASD devices with raw-track access mode is not supported. Only full-track access mode is supported.
For AIX and Solaris: You can perform image operations on volumes created using Veritas Volume Manager. The client initially supports static (default) and dynamic image type for backup.
For Solaris 10 clients, only use image backup for file systems that are assigned from the global zone to the non-global zone by exporting the device, specifying add device and set match. Do not use image backup for other file systems in the non-global zones because the non-global zone does not have the authority to mount or unmount the file system. Also, for Solaris 10 clients, do not use the overlap device of the root disk (c0t0d0s2) for raw device backup. Avoid using this feature on disks or slices that are used as swapping devices.
/etc/vfstab, to be recognized by the backup-archive client for an image backup of
file systems. The file systems should be unmounted. Raw devices should not be listed in
/etc/vfstab. For example, the following is the correct meta device name to be used
in the /etc/vfstab file:
/dev/vx/dsk/<disk group>/<meta device name>Specifying /dev/vx/dsk/ would not be recognized correctly, and you would receive
an error (ANS1134E).
Disk slices containing cylinder 0 should not be backed up or restored. In this case the VTOC is overwritten. If you need to back up the first disk slice, exclude cylinder 0 by starting the disk slice from cylinder 1 (use the format utility). The backup-archive client does not check whether cylinder 0 is contained in the device that is overwritten during a restore.