[bigdog69]

I have a VIO server that provides all disk for 3 LPARs. The VIO server has 3 volume groups (rootvg, uservg, user1vg). The user volume groups (uservg, user1vg) have 6 logical volumes which are shared across the 3 LPARs. I am trying to figure out the best way to back up this environment. My thought was the following:
1) backupios
2) mksysyb (on rootvg on the VIO server)
3) volume group backups on the 2 user volume groups (taken on the VIO server)
My question is will this allow me to restore the VIO partition from the mksysb and have the 3 LPARs in a bootable state after I restore the 2 user volume groups? If not, does anyone have any suggestions? I can't find and resource that shows best practices for backing up a VIO environment.

[tfederigi]

Run a search on IBM's site for "virtualization best practices" and it should be the second link. This site wont let me post links yet because I am new to it sorry.

[Frans]

Normaly do this
============
Backup each system using mksysb once a week (to nim server ,tape or DVD )
backup all other filesystem on the systems using backup tools or scripts
backup vios to ( nim or dvd ) backupios in script
backup all system information on VIO in a script colecting the following stuff
netstat -state
netstat -routinfo
lspv
lsvg
lsvg -lv rootvg
lsdev -type adapter
lsmap -all
lsmap -all -net
this all go's in to a file on my nim server
HMC backups

I also have automaated documentation that runs on each system every day to collect system information and changes to the system in to HTML formated docs.
This is good for security and looking back when problems come up