Restoring AIX with network boot

Note:

If NetBackup access management is used in your environment, you must provide the appropriate credentials when prompted so that NetBackup can restore the client files.

An AIX boot (either network boot or media boot) may set the network interface configuration, speed, and duplex mode to auto-negotiate or 10 half duplex. This may cause the BMR restore to run much more slowly than expected. To achieve normal restore performance, manually set the network interface configuration through the firmware before a BMR restore.

AIX system restore requires certain information and resources.

The information varies according to architecture, but can include the following:

Network adapter type
BMR client IP address
BMR client subnet mask
BMR boot server IP address
BMR client gateway address

After you perform the network boot procedure, the remainder of the restore process is automatic and requires no manual intervention. After the restore finishes and the client reboots itself, it is completely restored.

You can network boot an AIX system that has AIX installed, which does the following:

Updates the NVRAM with the proper addresses for the BMR boot server, client, and gateway address.
Boots by bootp from the BMR boot server. If the boot server does not answer the bootp request, the machine boots from the hard drive.

The network boot only works when the BMR client is properly prepared for restore.

Warning:

Do not perform this procedure unless you intend to do a restore. When you prepare a client for restore, the process may result in a restore.

To perform the network boot

Prepare to restore the client.

See Preparing to restore a client.
Boot from a network interface according to the procedures in the IBM hardware documentation.