AIX Backup

AIX admins know that backups aren’t optional—they’re your lifeline for downtime recovery, server migrations, and disaster recovery (DR). This guide dives deep into mksysb (rootvg images), savevg (VG snapshots), and tar (file archives), including commands, options, restores, prerequisites, and pro tips. Let’s level up your AIX backup game.

MKSYSB Backup:
MKSYSB is a bootable backup of the root volume group (rootvg) on AIX.
It contains OS files, configuration, and can be used to restore or clone the system.

MKSYSB Backup Command
Example:
# mksysb -i -X /backup/mksysb_$(hostname)_$(date +%Y%m%d).mksysb

This creates a backup file with the hostname and date in the filename, e.g., /backup/mksysb_appserver1_20251015.mksysb.

Useful Options:
-i: Creates an incremental backup if applicable (saves time and space).
-X: Excludes the /home directory (if you want to exclude user data).
-e: Excludes specific files or directories.
-c: Performs consistency check before backup.

MKSYSB Backup Script:

1.Jump server & aix servers should have passwordless authentication. 

2.The script will mount NFS shared to AIX servers

3.To take mksysb(roovg) backup to the NFS shared 

4.Unmount NFS shared 

5.Run script ./remote_backup_aix_mksysb.sh <server1> <server2> <server3> ...

Example Script: remote_backup_aix_mksysb.sh

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#!/bin/bash

# ===== CONFIG =====

REMOTE_USER="root"

NFS_SERVER="192.168.10.11"

NFS_PATH="/aix/backup"

MOUNT_POINT="/mnt"

# ===== CHECK INPUT =====

if [ $# -lt 1 ]; then

    echo "Usage: $0 <server1> <server2> <server3> ..."

    exit 1

fi

# ===== LOOP THROUGH ALL SERVERS =====

for REMOTE_HOST in "$@"

do

    echo "==============================================="

    echo "Starting backup on: ${REMOTE_HOST}"

    echo "==============================================="

    ssh -o BatchMode=yes ${REMOTE_USER}@${REMOTE_HOST} << EOF

echo "Connected to \$(hostname)"

nfso -o nfs_use_reserved_ports=1

# Check if already mounted

if mount | grep " ${MOUNT_POINT} " > /dev/null 2>&1

then

    echo "${MOUNT_POINT} already mounted.............."

else

    echo "Mounting NFS share.........................."

    mount ${NFS_SERVER}:${NFS_PATH} ${MOUNT_POINT}

    if [ \$? -ne 0 ]; then

        echo "ERROR: Mount failed....................."

        exit 1

    fi

fi

HOSTNAME=\$(hostname)

DATE=\$(date +%Y%m%d)

BACKUP_DIR=${MOUNT_POINT}/backup

BACKUP_FILE=\${BACKUP_DIR}/mksysb_\${HOSTNAME}_\${DATE}.mksysb

mkdir -p \${BACKUP_DIR}

echo "Starting mksysb backup..."

mksysb -i -X \${BACKUP_FILE}

if [ \$? -ne 0 ]; then

    echo "ERROR: mksysb failed."

    exit 1

fi

echo "Backup completed successfully."

echo "Unmounting ${MOUNT_POINT}..."

umount ${MOUNT_POINT}

if [ \$? -ne 0 ]; then

    echo "WARNING: Unmount failed....."

fi

echo "Finished on \$(hostname)"

exit 0

EOF

    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then

        echo "SUCCESS: ${REMOTE_HOST} backup completed."

    else

        echo "FAILED: ${REMOTE_HOST} backup failed."

    fi

    echo ""

done

echo "All servers processed...................."

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SAVEVG Backup:
savevg is an AIX command used to create a backup of a volume group (VG), including all logical volumes and data in that VG.

• Backing up entire volume groups before making changes.
• Migrating volume groups.
• Disaster recovery.

Basic syntax:
# savevg -f <backup_file_path> <vgname>
-f <backup_file_path>: Specifies the path and filename where the VG backup will be saved.
<vgname>: Name of the volume group you want to back up.

Tar Backup:
tar (tape archive) bundles multiple files/directories into a single archive file.
Often used with compression (gzip or bzip2) to save space.

Basic tar backup command
To create a backup archive of a directory, for example /home:
# tar -cvf /backup/home_backup_$(date +%Y%m%d).tar /home
-c = create a new archive
-v = verbose (lists files as they're archived)
-f = specifies the filename of the archive

Compressing the tar archive with gzip
# tar -czvf /backup/home_backup_$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /home
-z = compress the archive using gzip
Compressing the tar archive with bzip2 (better compression)
# tar -cjvf /backup/home_backup_$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.bz2 /home
-j = compress using bzip2

Extracting from a tar archive

Without compression:
# tar -xvf archive.tar
With gzip compression:
# tar -xzvf archive.tar.gz
With bzip2 compression:
# tar -xjvf archive.tar.bz2

Example: Backup /etc directory to compressed archive
# tar -czvf /backup/etc_backup_$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc