Help! My mksysb is only backing up 4 files!

Help! My mksysb is only backing up 4 files!

I enjoy it when I open my email in the morning and find a new message with a subject line of “weird one….”! I immediately prepare myself for whatever challenge awaits. Fortunately I do delight in helping others with their AIX challenges so I usually open these emails first and start to diagnose and troubleshoot the problem!

This week I was contacted by someone that was having a little trouble with a mksysb backup on one of their AIX systems.

“Hi Chris,

This one has me stumped, any ideas? I’ll have to log a call I think as I’m not sure why this is happening. I run a mksysb and it just backs up 4 files! I also can’t do an alt_disk_copy that also fails.

My /etc/exclude.rootvg is empty.

# cat /etc/exclude.rootvg
# mksysb -i /mksysb/aixlpar1-mksysb

Creating information file (/image.data) for rootvg.

Creating list of files to back up.

Backing up 4 files

4 of 4 files (100%)
0512-038 mksysb: Backup Completed Successfully.

# lsmksysb -f /mksysb/aixlpar1-mksysb
New volume on /mksysb/aixlpar1-mksysb:
Cluster size is 51200 bytes (100 blocks).
The volume number is 1.
The backup date is: Wed Oct 21 22:12:04 EST 2015
Files are backed up by name.
The user is root.
5911 ./bosinst.data
11 ./tmp/vgdata/rootvg/image.info
11837 ./image.data
270567 ./tmp/vgdata/rootvg/backup.data
The total size is 288326 bytes.
The number of archived files is 4.”
 

Yep, that is a weird one! J I replied with the following tips.

“Hi,

A couple of things to check and try.....

1. Check the mount command is OK. i.e.

# ls -ltr /usr/sbin/mount
-r-sr-xr-x 3 root system 67040 Aug 18 15:52 /usr/sbin/mount << Not zero size?

# mount

2. Check the find command is OK i.e.

# ls -ltr /usr/bin/find
-r-xr-xr-x 1 bin bin 58608 Aug 18 15:44 /usr/bin/find << Not symlink'ed?

3. Delete the /etc/exclude.rootvg file. Try mksysb again. Does it work?

4. Riun mkszfile and check image.data. Are fs data stanzas listed for each file system?

5. Try with verbose and debug enabled on mksysb/mkszfile commands.

# cd /usr/bin
# cp -p mksysb mksysb.orig
# cp -p mkszfile mkszfile.orig

# vi mksysb

; search for main

#################### main ##########################

#
# set up environment
#
PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/etc: ; export PATH
export ODMDIR="/etc/objrepos"
NAME=`/usr/bin/basename $0`
PLATFORM=`/usr/sbin/bootinfo -a` # Needed for IA64 (value 4)

Add the following:

#################### main ##########################

set -x
for F in $(typeset +f); do typeset -ft $F; done

#
# set up environment
#

; Do the same (above) for mkszfile.

; Save the files and run mkszfile and mksysb with script (to capture the output).

# script /tmp/mksysb.out
# mkszfile
# mksysb -i -v /mksysb/aixlpar-mksysbimg
# exit”
 

A short time later I received another email stating that the problem had been resolved! Curiously, the find command had been (somehow) destroyed on this system.

“LLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEGGGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

/usr/bin/find was a zero size file!!! WTF!

I just copied the file from another LPAR and it worked perfect.

THANKS!!!!”

I thought I’d share this information here, just in case anyone else comes across a similar problem in the future.