Analyse utility
Just imagine that
- one of your users has, by accident, typed 'rm * .old' and erased all his files instead of only his old files. This happens one hour before you had plans to make the next backup, so the previous backup is way out of date.
- your system has been compromised and some files been deleted on purpose and your last system backup has failed, etc.....
- it turns out that one of the critical directories in your system was not in your backup scheme and somebody did 'rm'.
Then you can do following six steps to recover your data :
- Step 1 : freeze
In order to optimize recovery chances, it is important to take no actions that could worsen the situation. Filesystem on which deletion occured should not be touched, cause even the smallest change such as the creation of a single byte file might overwrite crucial data needed for the recovery.
- Step 2 : download free list utility
Visit the download area of www.compunix.com and download the free list utility for your AIX version. The list utility is a small executable that will allow you to check what data and which files can be recovered. No need to make any payment or show any credit card.
- Step 3 : execute the list utility
Execute the list utility on your system. The list utility does not require root privileges or write access to the logical volumes: read-access is all that is required.
- Step 4 : examine the output of the list utility
When the list utility has analysed the data on the filesystem, you'll get a command at prompt at which you interactively can check what data can be recovered. Information provided is :
- size of file
- timestamp of last modification (except for JFS block recovery)
- type of file
- full or partial pathname of file
- owner of file
When looking for Oracle dbf files, information on database and tablespace name.
In case you have problems interpreting the result of the list utility, execute the following command at the prompt of the utility :
report > /tmp/compunix.report
and send the compunix.report file to
.
Usage sample of list utility on a JFS filesystem
Usage sample of list utility on a JFS2 filesystem - Step 5 : found what you are looking for ?
then order a full licensed version via the order form. License class is provided by the list utility.
- Step 6 : install and run the full version
The full version is very similar to the list utility, except that the full version allows you to copy your data/files back to real files. The full version also only require read-only access to the logical volume.
The analyse utility will check every bit and byte and uses multiple algorithms to recreate the original data. Altough it is not a guaranteed undelete utility, it will give you the best chances for recovery of your valuable data.
Support Matrix
| AIX 4.3 | AIX 5.1 | AIX 5.2 | AIX 5.3 | |
| JFS | supported | supported | supported | supported |
| JFS2 | N/A | supported | supported | supported |
[ Defragment utility | Reduce utility ]