How to use IGNITE

By Miguel Ribeiro – 2001.10.24

Index
How to create an Ignite recovery tape

How to verify the discrepancies of the tape recovery

How to recover a system with an Ignite tape

How to configure Ignite to include additional software

System Administration Rules

How to create an Ignite recovery tape
Step 1 Install the Ignite-UX product (if this is not installed already in your system)

Ignite product is included on the Applications CD for HP-UX 11.*

# swlist –l product Ignite-UX-11-00 (to verify if it is installed on the system)

Step 2 Including non-CoreOS files

Edit /var/opt/ignite/recovery/makrec.append

Include the Televault software. This guarantees that after restoring from the recovery
tape, you will be able to successfully run Televault software to restore data backups.

Step 3 Check disk space available in /var

Ignite requires a minimum of 32Mb of disk space in the /var file system.

# bdf /var

Step 4 Put a tape in the default tape drive

Step 5 Run make_recovery

This process could take more than 30 minutes

# cd /opt/ignite/bin
# make_recovery -C

Step 6 Check the make_recovery log files

make_recovery creates two log files. Makrec.log1 contain progress messages from the
execution of the make_recovery. The makrec.log2 contain any error encountered.

/var/opt/ignite/logs/ makrec.log1 and makrec.log2

Step 7 Remove the recovery tape from the drive and put it in the safe
How to verify the discrepancies of the tape recovery
Step 1 Detect discrepancies

Note: This step doesn’t require the tape in the drive

This process will detect the following discrepancies:

Changes to the LVM configuration

Software added/deleted since the last make_recovery
Files modifications

# cd /opt/ignite/bin
# ./check_recovery
How to recover a system with an Ignite tape
SPECIAL NOTE: If you are going to do recover test in FTSE network. The network configuration
will be similar to the cloned system, so remove the system (were you are recovering) from the
network. Otherwise if you don’t do this both systems network may clash and all connectivity could
be lost.

NOTE: Before recovering from any tape recovery on different system, you have to be sure that
system have a similar hardware (number of disks) and disk space, otherwise won’t be possible to
recover from the tape and a normal HP-UX installation prompt will ask you to adapt to the current
hardware configuration.

Step 1 Press the power button of the machine

Step 2 Put the tape recover media into the drive

Step 3 Press ENTER when the message appear on the screen:

“To discontinue, press any key within 10 seconds.”

Step 4 Type the command to search for the tape device:

Main Menu: Enter Command > sea

Step 5 On the “Device Type” column, look for “Sequential access media”, note down the
“Path Number” correspondent and type the following command:

Main Menu: Enter Command > bo p6 (where p6 in this case corresponded the
sequential access device)

Step 6 Press “n” to avoid the “Interact with IPL (Y or N)?>”

The process will overwrite the content and configuration of all disks (logical volumes and
groups) that you have on this machine. Everything will be replaced with an exact copy of
the configuration recovery tape.

The system will reboot automatically using the bootable disk, now wait until you get the
logon prompt

Step 7 After booting from the disk, execute a restore from Televault

Restore only the DATA file-systems, not the system file-systems (/, /var, /opt, /usr and
/etc)
How to configure Ignite to include additional software

Step 1 Add the software into the ignite append file

#cd /var/opt/ignite/recovery
# vi makrec.append

Step 2 Go to the bottom of the file and add the directories/files

To add a software directory for example:

dir /opt/ignite

To add a file

file /var/tmp/file.tmp

NOTE:

Avoid adding directories/files belonging to NFS file-systems, secondary mount point or

data file-systems.
System Administration Rules

Rule 1:

Don’t treat Ignite as backup software. The main purpose of Ignite has to install/reinstall
your system into a bootable state with all configurations that you had previously.

Rule 2:

If your system has a recovery tape, you have to remake that tape always after any
system change (This means, if any configuration file was changed, any patch/software
was installed, even if you change the permissions of just one file/directory)

If you don’t do this you won’t have an exactly clone of your system if it crashes.

Rule 3:

Identify correctly the recovery tapes with the hostname of the cloned system and the date
of last remake. Also keep these tapes in a safe… because they will be your best friends
in the worst moments.