Creating emergency recovery boot media

For instructions on creating an emergency recovery boot CD, see the emerg_disk(1M) manual pages. The following is an example of creating boot diskettes.

1. Use the format(1M) command to create two formatted diskettes. For example, this command creates a formatted, 1.44MB diskette in the primary diskette drive:
   
   format -v /dev/rdsk/f03ht

2. Label the diskettes with the name of the system, date created, and their name and number. For example:

   mymachine		mymachine
   22 June 2001		22 June 2001
   Emergency Recovery	Emergency Recovery
   Diskette 1 		Diskette 2
   

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   NOTE: Emergency recovery disks are customized for a particular system and only work on that system.

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3. Switch from the graphical environment to the system console, by pressing <Ctrl><Alt><Esc>. Log in to the system console as root.

4. Ensure that /var is mounted.

5. Make sure there are no active users on the system. Enter:
   
   who

6. If root is the only user logged in, bring the system to single-user mode with this command:
   
   shutdown -y -g0 -i1

   If other users are listed, bring the system to single-user mode with this command:
   
   shutdown -y -g300 -i1

   The -g300 flag in this command allows users 5 minutes (300 seconds) to close their files and log out. A broadcast message from root provides warnings that the system is coming down.

7. After the system enters single-user mode, determine in which filesystem you will create the recovery media. The filesystem must contain at least 30 MB of free space.

   To determine which filesystems have enough space, enter:
   
   /sbin/dfspace

   For example, you might see:

   /        : Disk space:  195.10 MB of  429.00 MB available (45.48%)
   /stand   : Disk space:    5.82 MB of    9.99 MB available (58.28%)
   /home    : Disk space:  238.86 MB of  479.00 MB available (49.87%)
   /tmp     : Disk space:    7.98 MB of    8.00 MB available (99.85%)
   /var/tmp : Disk space:    9.99 MB of    8.99 MB available (90.00%)
   

   In this example, only the root (/) and /home filesystems have enough space to be used in creating the emergency recovery media.

8. Enter:
   
   /sbin/emergency_disk -d pathname diskette

   pathname is the filesystem you selected. diskette is the diskette drive where you will insert the diskette (either diskette1 or diskette2).

   The following example creates an emergency recovery diskette on the first diskette drive, using the /home filesystem as its working directory:
   
   /sbin/emergency_disk -d /home diskette1

9. When prompted, insert the first formatted disk into the appropriate diskette drive.

   Creating each emergency recovery disk takes about fifteen minutes.

10. When prompted, remove the first diskette, insert the second diskette and press <Enter>.
    

11. When prompted, remove the diskette from the diskette drive.

    Store the emergency recovery disks in a secure location.

After you create the emergency recovery diskettes, do one of the following:

• If your system has a tape drive, you should now create emergency recovery tapes.

• If your system does not have a tape drive, then you should now create a full system backup onto the network or other media.