Backup a system using mkcd (mkdvd) command

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Ensuring you have a current backup of your operating system is essential for a smooth upgrade. Learn how to back up your current environment and then restore it on your new server.

This procedure provides information about how to back up the IBM® AIX® operating system to a CD or DVD. This procedure assumes that your server might not have an optical drive. If your server does not have an optical drive, you can back up AIX to a file, and then use FTP (or another mechanism such as scp/sftp) to send the AIX backup file to a server that does have an optical drive.

This procedure involves performing the following tasks:

1. Backing up AIX to an ISO image file
2. Transferring the ISO image to another server
3. Burning the ISO image to a CD or DVD

The following steps show you how to back up the AIX operating system to a CD or DVD.

  • 1. Log in to the server as the root user.
  • 2. Verify your running server.
  • 3. Check the firmware code level from AIX, and update the firmware, if necessary.
  • 4. Use the errpt command to generate an error report from entries in the system error log. To display a complete detailed report, type the following command:

errpt -a

Note: There must be adequate disk space and memory available. For additional release information, see the AIX 5L Release Notes.

  • 5. Run the smitty mkcd command as follows

smitty mkcd

  • 6. Select No from the Use an existing mksysb image menu if you wish to create a new system backup that reflects your current running environment. Select Yes if you want to use an existing mksysb image from the current backup.
  • 7. Select the options that are appropriate to your environment from the Back Up This System to CD menu. You can also leave the default options as they are.
  • 8. Select Yes for the Do you want the CD to be bootable option.
  • 9. Select No for the Remove final images after creating CD option.
  • 10. Select No for the Create the CD now option.
  • 11. Press Enter to begin the system backup creation when you finish making selections. When the operation completes successfully, there is a file or files located in the /mkcd/cd_images directory.
  • 12. Transfer the ISO backup image to a server that has an optical drive.
  • 13. Create a bootable CD or DVD from the ISO backup image using the CD or DVD-burning software available in your environment.

VIO equivalent

To perform the equivalent on a VIO system, run backupios -file /mkcd/cd_images