Storix Software SBAdmin AIX System Recovery Guide - Manual (Page 6)

2. Create Boot Media for System
Installation
The SBAdmin Backup Administrator User Interface provides a very simple procedure for creating boot media,
which is described in this section. This interface may be used to create bootable tapes, boot CDROM images,
network boot images, or can configure a local hard disk to boot the system recovery process. This interface
may create any of the boot media types. Also refer to the stmakeboot command in the
Commands Reference
Guide , which may be run on any client to make bootable media directly from that system.
If using a Network Administrator, you should have boot media available for every client. If different clients are of
the same platform type, AIX release level, and have the same adapter support installed, then they may
typically use the same boot media. If you have one system with all device support installed, that system may be
used to create boot media that will boot any system regardless of its own platform type or attached hardware.
Keep in mind, however that you must create boot media using the same AIX release level you will be installing
from the backup.
You must create boot media using the same AIX release level you will be installing
from the backup!
When to Create Boot Media
It is generally a good idea to create bootable media for each individual system that is backed up using
SBAdmin. This is because most systems do not run under the same AIX release level, have the same device
support installed and configured, and have the same software level of various device support and other
applications installed.
If you attempt to boot from media created using one AIX release level (i.e. “5.2”), then attempt to install the
system from a backup that was running under release 5.3, you may run into problems during or after the
installation completes. This is because the devices and filesystems created during the system recovery will be
later accessed by a different AIX kernel that may not be compatible or provide the proper support. For this
reason, the SBAdmin Installation process provides strong warnings if you boot from a different release level
than was running at the time the backup was created. The installation process also verifies that your boot media
contains the device support that is required to install the system, based on those devices that were in use at the
time of the backup. If the support is not provided by the bootable media, devices may not appear which are
needed for the install process.
If you have multiple systems, all running the same AIX release (but not necessary the exact same modification
or fix level), it is generally safe to use the same boot media to boot and install different systems. Because the
boot media is probably the most important boot media you will ever need, it is probably a good idea to keep at
least one spare or create boot media of different types.
When You Should Create New Boot Media
1. Any time you apply operating system updates to AIX. Even if the release level has not changed, some
new device support may have been added, shared libraries may have changed, or even the kernel may
have been updated.
2. Any time you install a new release level of SBAdmin System Backup Administrator . Although we try to
maintain compatibility between current and past versions, there may be times when a new feature
supported by the backup software also adds new support to the system recovery process. Since the
system recovery programs are written to your boot media, you will need to remake the boot media to
make sure you are using the latest installation programs.
Storix System Backup Administrator 6 Version 8.2 AIX System Recovery Guide