Hi,

We have a few issues with our current method of Informix backup which need improving and I was wondering how the majority of people running informix backup.

We are currently backing up the system on line late on in the day using;

ontape -s -L 0

Firstly how much of an issue is backing up the engine online ?

The backup spans across two DLT tapes which need changing manually. At the moment we change the logical log tape which continuously backs up the logs on the DAT drive after the backup has completed.

Is it possible to change the log tape before beggining the zero level archive as this would allow us to leave the second tape running and thus start the backup later in the day. The one major issue here is will ontape -r skip the logical logs at the front of the tape you do not require and restore the logs from after the zero level archive if you select to restore from logical logs.

Informix have suggested purchasing a tape changer and using onbar so we can back up at night. Do people generally use this method and how popular are third party backup products. As Informix also tell me that they wouldn't support a backup / restore done from a third party product is there any advantage to using them ?

On a slightly different note we use ufsdump to back up the Sun box again manually and again whilst Baan is still active. How reliable is this method and should Baan be down to be backed up correctly. We did previously do this by running a cron job but the job daemon never reactivated itself correctly and we can have overnight processes such as MRP running so in thoery we are running 24 X 7.

All comments / suggestions gratefully received.

Neal Matthews

All of our Informix customers use onbar with a third-party backup product. By using this with an autochanger or tape library you will be able to coordinate the backup of the log files and the database itself.

The problems that we have run into is that Informix levels must be CAREFULLY matched to the backup software and the onbar interface version. We have had two instances where backups have run for months without reporting errors and then when a test restore was done, it did not work. Informix support does help in these cases to restore the data but they do not guarantee the results.

Backing up the database online is not much of an issue. In fact, it is the only way supported by Informix if you are using raw devices.

-- Jim

__________________
Jim VanderMey
VP of Technical Operations
Open Systems Technologies
Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
jvandermey@ostusa.com