Patent ID: 8676762

Claim:
A data processing system comprising: one or more processors; a memory coupled to each of the one or more processors; at least one input/output (I/O) adapter that enables connection to an external network with a shared storage repository; and a virtualization management component executing within at least one of the one or more processors of the data processing system and which generates a plurality of operating system (OS) partitions including a first virtual I/O server (VIOS) partition of multiple VIOS partitions within a VIOS cluster, wherein the first VIOS of the first VIOS partition is cluster aware and is configured to: perform, via a backup/restore utility of a cluster aware (CA) operating system (OS) executing on a processor resource of the first VIOS partition, a backup operation on the first VIOS partition, which creates a first configuration backup file having configuration information about the hardware, logical and virtual devices of the VIOS partition; store a local copy of the configuration backup file at a local storage of the VIOS; and store an exportable copy of the configuration backup file at one or more of a shared storage repository and a VIOS database; in response to receiving a VIOS restore command: retrieve the configuration backup file from the local storage; perform a first validation check on the configuration backup file, wherein the first validation check is a hardware validation, wherein the first validation check compares one or more attributes within the configuration backup file against one or more attributes that exist on the first VIOS; perform a second validation check on the configuration backup file, wherein the second validation check is a virtual and logical device validation check; and restore the configuration of the hardware, logical and virtual devices of the first VIOS to a state that existed at a time at which the backup operation creating the configuration backup file was performed.