The command “hmc bkconsdata” can be used to back up critical data from an HMC. The backup can be used to restore an HMC after an installation using a recovery CD.

hmc bkconsdata [-f] [-k <private_key_file>] [-o <mount_options>] [-p <password>] <hmc> [<location>|<filename>|none|usb]
   -f : force overwriting existing data
   -k : path to SSH private key file for SFTP
   -o : mount options for NFS
   -d : remote directory for FTP, SFTP and NFS
   -h : hostname or IP address of FTP, SFTP or NFS server
   -p : password for FTP or SFTP
   -t : the type of location
      ftp - FTP server
      sftp - SFTP server
      nfs - NFS filesystem
      usb - USB storage device
      none - remove backup task lock
   -u : user to use for FTP or SFTP

The location where the backup should be saved can be specified in one of the following forms:

   ftp://user[:password]@host[/directory][/filename] - FTP server
   sftp://user[:password]@host[/directory][/filename] - SFTP server
   nfs://host/directory[/filename] - NFS filesystem
   usb - USB storage device
   none - remove backup task lock (does not perform a backup)

If a file name is specified for the backup, it must begin with “HMCBackup_”!

If FTP or SFTP is used and no password or passphrase is specified on the command line, the password or passphrase is requested interactively.

For example, to create a backup of the HMC hmc01 and save it via SFTP as user fwtrans on the system with the IP address 172.16.199.107, the following command can be used:

$ hmc bkconsdata hmc01 sftp://fwtrans@172.16.199.107//export/hmc/hmc01/HMCBackup_20231103
INFO: using sftp://fwtrans@172.16.199.107//export/hmc/hmc01/HMCBackup_20231103
Enter the current password for user fwtrans: XXXXXXXX
Offloading archive file....

Shared connection to hmc01 closed.
$

The backup is saved under the name HMCBackup_20231103.tgz in the directory /export/hmc/hmc01. Since no password was specified on the command line, an interactive query is made.

If no target is specified, the value of the ConsoleDataArchive parameter from /opt/pwrcmps/etc/lpar.cfg or ~/.lpar.cfg is used as the location. Parts of this default location can be changed using the options “-d“, “-h“, “-p“, “-t” and “-u“. If the ConsoleDataArchive parameter is set to the value sftp://fwtrans@172.16.199.107//export/hmc/%h (%h is replaced by the name of the HMC), the above backup can be started by just specifying the file name:

$ hmc bkconsdata hmc01 HMCBackup_20231103
INFO: using sftp://fwtrans@172.16.199.107//export/hmc/hmc01/HMCBackup_20231103
Enter the current password for user fwtrans: XXXXXXXX
Offloading archive file....

Shared connection to hmc01 closed.
$

To prevent more than one backup from being created at the same time, a “Backup Task Lock” is created. If a second backup is started in parallel, an error message is displayed:

HSCLA50F A backup task is already in progress. Please wait and try again later.

In case such a “Backup Task Lock” has not been deleted after completing a backup, it can be deleted manually by specifying the target “none”:

$ hmc bkconsdata hmc01 none
INFO: using none

Shared connection to hmc01 closed.
$