How to backup your VIO Server

Backing up the Virtual I/O Server

There are 4 different ways to backup/restore the Virtual I/O Server as illustrated in the following table.

Backup method Restore method
To tape From bootable tape
To DVD From bootable DVD
To remote file system From HMC using the NIMoL facility and installios
To remote file system From an AIX NIM server


Backing up to a tape or DVD-RAM

To backup the Virtual I/O Server to a tape or a DVD-RAM, the following steps must be performed

1. check the status and the name of the tape/DVD drive
#lsdev | grep rmt (for tape)
#lsdev | grep cd (for DVD)

2. if it is Available, backup the Virtual I/O Server with the following command
#backupios –tape rmt#
#backupios –cd cd#

If the Virtual I/O Server backup image does not fit on one DVD, then the backupios command provides instructions for disk replacement and removal until all the volumes have been created. This command creates one or more bootable DVDs or tapes that you can use to restore the Virtual I/O Server

Backing up the Virtual I/O Server to a remote file system by creating a nim_resources.tar file

The nim_resources.tar file contains all the necessary resources to restore the Virtual I/O Server, including the mksysb image, the bosinst.data file, the network boot image, and SPOT resource.
The NFS export should allow root access to the Virtual I/O Server, otherwise the backup will fail with permission errors.

To backup the Virtual I/O Server to a filesystem, the following steps must be performed

1. Create a mount directory where the backup file will be written
#mkdir /backup_dir

2. Mount the exported remote directory on the directory created in step 1.
#mount server:/exported_dir /backup_dir

3. Backup the Virtual I/O Server with the following command
#backupios –file /backup_dir

The above command creates a nim_resources.tar file that you can use to restore the Virtual I/O Server from the HMC.

Note: The ability to run the installios command from the NIM server against the nim_resources.tar file is enabled with APAR IY85192.


The backupios command empties the target_disk_data section of bosinst.data and sets RECOVER_DEVICES=Default. This allows the mksysb file generated by the command to be cloned to another logical partition. If you plan to use the nim_resources.tar image to install to a specific disk, then you need to repopulate the target_disk_data section of bosinst.data and replace this file in the nim_resources.tar. All other parts of the nim_resources.tar image must remain unchanged.


Backing up the Virtual I/O Server to a remote file system by creating a mksysb image

You could also restore the Virtual I/O Server from a NIM server. One of the ways to restore from a NIM server is from the mksysb image of the Virtual I/O Server. If you plan to restore the Virtual I/O Server from a NIM server from a mksysb image, verify that the NIM server is at the latest release of AIX.

To backup the Virtual I/O Server to a filesystem the following steps must be performed

1. Create a mount directory where the backup file will be written
#mkdir /backup_dir
2. Mount the exported remote directory on the just created directory
#mount NIM_server:/exported_dir /backup_dir
3. Backup the Virtual I/O Server with the following command
#backupios –file /backup_dir/filename.mksysb -mksysb