In IT Data Centers backup is a very important task. As a system administrator, you need to take and keep a backup of codes, important files, logs, image backups of OS etc. For HP-UX operating systems, HPE provides an HP-UX system administration toolset called Dynamic Root Disk (DRD) which is used to clone an HP-UX system image to an inactive disk. We take an image backup of an OS for software update, maintenance, recovery and rehosting. DRD software can be downloaded from the HPE Software Depot using the below link:
https://myenterpriselicense.hpe.com/cwp-ui/product-details/DynRootDisk/A.3.17.65/sw_free
Clone an HP-UX system image using Dynamic Root Disk (DRD)
Follow the process given below to create a clone of an HP-UX system:
- Make sure the DRD toot is installed on your HP-UX OS.
- Run the below command to start the clone, here /dev/disk/disk3 is the target disk.
# drd clone -t /dev/disk/disk3 -x overwrite=true - The drd clone command output.
======= 10/17/21 13:12:25 IST BEGIN Clone System Image (user=root) (jobid=drdtest) * Reading Current System Information * Selecting System Image To Clone * Selecting Target Disk WARNING: Could not find "/dev/disk/disk2" in inventory * The disk "/dev/disk/disk3" contains data which will be overwritten. * Selecting Volume Manager For New System Image * Analyzing For System Image Cloning * Creating New File Systems * Copying File Systems To New System Image * Making New System Image Bootable * Unmounting New System Image Clone ======= 10/17/21 14:41:03 IST END Clone System Image succeeded. (user=root) (jobid=drdtest)
- You may check the status of the by using the below drd command.
# drd status - DRD status output will be like the below:
======= 10/17/21 13:10:58 IST BEGIN Displaying DRD Clone Image Information (user=root) (jobid=drdtest) * Clone Disk: /dev/disk/disk3 * Clone EFI Partition: AUTO file present, Boot loader present * Clone Rehost Status: SYSINFO.TXT not present * Clone Creation Date: 10/17/21 13:13:25 IST * Last Sync Date: None * Clone Mirror Disk: None * Mirror EFI Partition: None * Original Disk: /dev/disk/disk1 * Original EFI Partition: AUTO file present, Boot loader present * Original Rehost Status: SYSINFO.TXT not present * Booted Disk: Original Disk (/dev/disk/disk1) * Activated Disk: Original Disk (/dev/disk/disk1) ======= 10/17/21 13:11:18 IST END Displaying DRD Clone Image Information succeeded. (user=root) (jobid=drdtest)
Note: I have created a clone of HP-UX 11.31 to a Storage Area Network (SAN) disk.
Last Updated: May 01, 2022