The answer to your question is no, the image itself
will not be bootable. Think about it. You are
storing a system image in a filesystem that cannot
be mounted until the OS is restored and running. It's
a classic catch-22.
NIM is the solution you are looking for. SP systems use
NIM under the covers of PSSP to provide flat storage
mksysb restores, and we are using NIM to deliver mksysb
restores to all our standalones as well. All NIM
does is respond to the bootp request from a client
system, look up what kind of image should be delivered
to that client (cold install, migration install,
mksysb install, etc.), send the client via TFTP a
boot image that contains a boot OS with directions
about how to get back to the NIM server to continue
the SW delivery.
If you have restored the mksysb image for the system
you are trying to restore to the NIM server, you can
use the mksysb as the SW to deilver to that client
system. A couple of caveats apply, including most
importantly that the NIM server must be at an equal
or higher version of the OS with respect to the
system image being deilvered. RTFM on the NIM manual
that comes with all AIX OS distributions.
Good luck!
Dan
Sean McNamara wrote:
>
> Hello All,
>
> Scenario:
>
> - Do a MKSYSB to a flat file
> - Backup the image using TSM
> - Create a backupset of that image to tape or a CD
> - Use the image to recover a server.
>
> Would this image be bootable?? What are the possible problems or
> limitations with the above?? I am assuming that this will not work, but I
> figure I would pose the question on the outside chance that it might work.
> Thanks for any inputs.
>
> Sean McNamara
> Senior Analyst
> PJM Interconnection L.L.C.
> (610)666-4206
