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Once the tape volume containing a save is available to IBM i, use your standard restore
procedure or consult the IBM i Information Center’s “Backup and recovery” topic at:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/systems/scope/i5os/index.jsp?topic=/rzahg/rzahgbackup.
htm&tocNode=toc:rzahg/i5os/17/0/.
7.2.9. Performing a D-mode IPL from virtual tape
It is possible to perform a full-system save in an IBM i partition on a different system and then use
that save for a D-mode IPL and full-system restore on a blade with virtual tape. Supported tape
media must be used, as described in section 7.5. To perform a D-mode IPL using virtual tape,
use the following steps:
•
Verify the tape drive is powered on and the tape is loaded
•
Verify the tape drive is recognized in VIOS, as described in section 7.3.1
•
Assign the tape drive to the correct IBM i partition, as described in section 7.3.3
•
Verify that the correct tape drive is selected as an alternate IPL resource for the IBM i
partition:
o
In IVM, click on
View/Modify Partitions
o
Click on the IBM i partition
o
On
the
General
partition properties tab, verify the correct
rmtX
device is selected
in the
Alternate restart adapter
drop-down menu
o
If more than one
rmtX
device is available in VIOS, the full list can be displayed
as described in section 7.3.1. VIOS recognizes tape drives and assigns
rmtX
device names sequentially, starting from the first tape device on the first external
SAS port in SAS I/O module bay 3
o
On the same tab, verify the IBM i partition is configured for a D-mode manual IPL
•
Close the partition properties window
•
Select the IBM i partition and click
Activate
7.3. Save and restore with a Fibre Channel-attached tape library
7.3.1. Technical overview
In October 2009, IBM announced Fibre Channel (FC) tape libraries as a supported save and
restore option for IBM i on a Power blade. This capability allows an administrator to perform
backup and recovery operations using the same IBM i native or BRMS commands as on any
other IBM i LPAR attached to a tape library. Advanced capabilities such as automatic media
change and hardware encryption of tape media are supported. Encrypted tape volumes can then
be read and used for restore on a non-blade Power server connected to a tape library. Note that
single tape drives, such as the TS2240, do not support hardware tape encryption. Therefore, it is
not possible to read a tape volume encrypted in a library by using a TS2240 tape drive attached
to IBM i on a Power blade in a different BladeCenter. If the tape volume is not encrypted,
however, backups performed via both save and restore methods for IBM i on a blade are
interchangeable.
As mentioned previously, IBM i uses a different I/O virtualization technology to get access to FC
tape libraries vs. a single LTO4 SAS tape drive. While VIOS virtualizes a single SAS tape drive
to IBM i through Virtual SCSI (VSCSI), VIOS uses N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) to allow IBM i
direct access to a tape library in the SAN through an NPIV-capable adapter owned by VIOS.
NPIV is a Fibre Channel technology that enables a single port on a FC adapter to be presented to
the SAN as an N-number of independent port with different World-wide Port Names (WWPNs).
NPIV-capable adapters on Power servers and blades allow up to 256 virtual FC ports to be
assigned to a single physical FC port. On Power servers and blades, VIOS always owns and
manages the NPIV FC adapter. NPIV has been available for AIX as a client of VIOS on Power
