SYSGEN Backup Capabilities

A complete system backup consists of system files, user files, the file system directory, and system configuration information. STORE copies only system and user files and the file system directory to backup.

To back up your system configuration, use the SYSGEN utility. This creates a system load tape (SLT). A system load tape contains system configuration information, and all the system files necessary to boot and run a basic system.

SYSGEN requires that you have system supervisor (OP) capability to view system configuration data and system manager (SM) capability to save changes.

SYSGEN provides a series of command-driven user interfaces and online help facilities that describe command syntax and options. Through the interfaces, referred to as configurators, you can build new system configurations and generate a system load tape based on the new information.

SYSGEN stores configuration data in a group of files that are maintained by one or more of the five system configurators. Each configurator provides you with an interface to make changes to an independent portion of the configuration data. For example, there is an I/O configurator that allows you to change the physical makeup of the system and a Log configurator for making changes to the type and quality of system and user log files.

The base group is the group containing the set of configuration files to be read or modified by SYSGEN. The default group is the group that was specified (or defaulted to) when the system was started. If a base group is not specified, then the default group becomes the base group. The default group is generally CONFIG.SYS.

CONFIG.SYS is a permanent fileSet containing information on device classes, assigned I/O paths, assigned LDEV numbers, volume names, and various data in system files. When changes are made to the system configuration from one or more of the configurators, the files remain unchanged until you formally keep the new information through the SYSGEN KEEP command. You can always back out of changes until you actually keep them. You may KEEP the base group or to a group you specify.

Multiple configurations can be kept on disk and stored to backup through a full system backup. When you KEEP your changes to another group name (for example, CONFG950), a new group is created in the SYS account with an identical fileset. When a system load tape is generated, however, the current configuration data is always written to the SLT as CONFIG.SYS regardless of what your working name on disk is for the group. This reduces confusion over which group is the current configuration or what its original name was if you suddenly have to regenerate a system. For information on changing or creating configurations groups, refer to System Startup, Configuration, and Shutdown Reference Manual.