Before installing an iFix or a service pack, it is recommended to create a backup of the HMC. If the HMC has problems after the update, the backup can be used to restore the original state.

If the ConsoleDataArchive parameter of the LPAR-Tool has been set, only the HMC needs to be specified in the “hmc bkconsdata” command (see Backup and restore of the HMC):

$ hmc bkconsdata hmc01
INFO: using ftp://fwtrans:abc1234@aixnim//export/hmc/hmc01
Generating the list of files to archive....
Creating archive file....
Offloading archive file....
Shared connection to hmc01 closed.
$

Note: The backup can be several GB in size. Depending on the network speed, creating and uploading the backup can take up to 30 minutes.

The backup created above is almost 3 GB in size:

aixnim # ls -l /export/hmc/hmc01
total 11047416
-rw-r--r--    1 fwtrans  staff    2828022842 Jul 01 13:27 HMCBackup_20230701.110311.tgz
aixnim #