Backing up a user volume group

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The savevg command provides the ability to create a user-volume group backup to a CD, DVD, removable hard disk cartridge, tape, or file.

The savevg command finds and backs up all files belonging to a specified volume group. The volume group must be varied-on, and the file systems must be mounted.

This user backup contains a copy of a non-rootvg volume group, and is useful for volume groups that contain user data.

The savevg command uses a data file created by the mkvgdata command. The data file created is as follows: 
/tmp/vgdata/vgname/vgname.data
The vgname.data file contains information about a user volume group. The savevg command uses this file to create a backup image that can be used by the restvg command to re-create the user volume group.
The savevg command with the -r flag is used to back up only a user-volume group's logical volume structure information. The data needed to list backup properties is also backed up. The -r flag runs the mkvgdata command for the volume group specified to create a vgname.data file. The -r flag backs up only the vgname.data file, any map files, and the backup.data file. The backup image that is created is used with the restvg -r command option to create only the volume group, logical volumes, and file system information contained in the file, without restoring any data. For example, to back up only the paul user volume group's structure information to the /vg_backup/paul_vg_data file, type the following: 
savevg -r -f /vg_backup/paul_vg_data paul

You can also use the mkcd command to create a user volume group backup to CD or DVD. The mkcd command saves one volume group at a time to a CD or DVD.

The mkcd command with the -L flag allows the creation of ISO9660 DVD sized images. The mkcd or the mkdvd command with the -U flag allows the creation of UDF DVD images.

If your rootvg image and savevg image are small enough to fit on one CD or DVD, you can save them both by using the -l (stacklist) and -z (customization_script) flags. The -l flag gives a list of images to copy to the CD or DVD. The -z flag lets you create a script to restore savevg backups. For example, if you make a copy of a non-rootvg volume group ahead of time, and then write a script that calls the restvg command, your non-rootvg volume group would be restored to hdisk2 at the end of the installation of rootvg, as shown by the following command:
restvg -d /SPOT/installp/ppc/savevg_image hdisk2

This procedure is recommended only if you know you want to restore the non-rootvg volume group every time you install. Otherwise, you might just want to store it on the CD/DVD, then use restvg to restore it after reboot. The restvg command can restore from CD or DVD if the name of the image is savevg_image. If you save the non-rootvg backup on a CD or DVD with a different file name, you can insert that CD or DVD and use the full path to the file name as the device for the restvg command.

Use SMIT to back up user volume groups to CD or DVD.