[geeks] RS/6000 Disk clone

[Sridhar Ayengar]

Mark wrote:
>>> I just got my hands on a very clean and well kept RS/6000 server
>>> (7046-B50 for those who understand IBM model number gibberish). I was
>>> wondering what the most effective way to clone and swap out the boot
>>> drive might be. The disks in it are a pair of well worn IBM 18GBs and
>>> all I want to do is swap them for some quieter Seagate 18GBs I have
>>> in my Netra (currently not in use).
>>>
>>> I'm running AIX 5.3L and have a pretty-much clean install. Can I just
>>> 'dd' the raw device to the new disk?
>> man mksysb
>>
>> It does the right thing.  Make sure you use the options to store the
>> partition table on the tape, and also use the options to recalculate
>> *everything*.
> 
> Can it be made to output to a file on an external disk? I have no  
> access to tape backup hardware.

It can do either.  If you don't have a tape drive, you can create a 
bootable DVD image file, which can be copied over to another machine and 
burned onto a DVD.  You can do it with CDs too, but it's much easier 
with DVDs, since the mksysb image will likely be far too large for one 
CD-ROM.

Using a regular mksysb file is somewhat less convenient.

I believe you'll find the B50 to be a pretty nice machine.  A 375MHz 
PowerPC 604e is nothing to sneeze at.

Peace...  Sridhar