Re: ixbar file layout. Restore test results. ONBAR is awesome
Shen and Paresh,
Thanks for the info you provided regarding the ixbar file format.
Informix Onbar is an amazing tool. I am very pleased with it and happy
that we upgraded from OnArchive.
I had the opportunity to test 2 things with onbar restores this weekend:
1) Will a restartable restore work if the initial restore command
detects missing disk space?
2) If a logical log is backed up but not recorded 'normally' will there
be issues during the restore? (In my PRD system, logical log 940776
backed up per Veritas Netback & ixbar, but was not recorded in the
sysutils database).
Test Results:
1) Informix will recognize 'new' disk space after the initial restore
command without having to start the restore over in it's entirety.
The first restore command complained of missing disk space:
online.log:
Cannot Open Primary Chunk
'/informix/PRD/sapdata/physdev43/data35', errno = 2
Cannot Open Primary Chunk
'/informix/PRD/sapdata/physdev43/data36', errno = 2
Cannot Open Primary Chunk
'/informix/PRD/sapdata/physdev43/data37', errno = 2
this affected 4 dbspaces.
I let the first restore run to completion (bar_retry = 3). Meanwhile,
my unix admin fixed the space issue. When I restarted the restore, it
did see the missing space, but in the restore log (bar_activity.log), it
reported permission problems:
34 29550 ERROR: Unable to write restore data to the
database server: The chunk '/informix/PRD/sap data/
physdev43/data35' must have owner-ID "informix"
and group-ID "informix"..
The restore did not fail, it kept running. While this attempt at
the restore was running, the unix admin fixed the perms problems. When
this restore (remember, bar_retry is 3) tried the dbspaces again, it was
able to see that all was finally well at the disk level, and restored
the final dbspaces.
2) Informix handled logical log 940776 like a champ. The backup status
for this log was uncertain based on Informix recording the backup
(recorded in ixbar boot file, but not in sysutils catalog). Performing a
logical restore through this log situation with no changes to ixbar or
sysutils catalog, worked flawlessly. Informix restored this log with no
glitches/hesitation. This was a cold restore (ixbar and Netbackup).
Informix is working marvelously for us on our SAP systems. (It has
survived 2 threats of conversion to Oracle).
Thanks for the support,
Norma Jean
-----------------------------------------
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Thank you.
Tellabs
============================================================
Norma,
Thanks a lot for the information. This is very helpfull to all of us. Our
company here is a big player in Informix and we are very pleased with
performance as opposed to Oracle. Our oracle servers are reporting endless
problems and our Informix servers are running like a charm with less problems.
When we call Oracle for support they take days to solve an issue and its
always very complicated and we have to have many people involved to get a
simple thing done in Oracle, unfortunately.
Manageabiliy and OLTP performance of Informix is serving us very well and soon
we are going to install an XPS enviroment for a DW which I hear to be very
good.
Thanks again.
Ravi Thero.
"NormaJean.S...." <NormaJean.Sebastian@tellabs.com> wrote:
Shen and Paresh,
Thanks for the info you provided regarding the ixbar file format.
Informix Onbar is an amazing tool. I am very pleased with it and happy
that we upgraded from OnArchive.
I had the opportunity to test 2 things with onbar restores this weekend:
1) Will a restartable restore work if the initial restore command
detects missing disk space?
2) If a logical log is backed up but not recorded 'normally' will there
be issues during the restore? (In my PRD system, logical log 940776
backed up per Veritas Netback & ixbar, but was not recorded in the
sysutils database).
Test Results:
1) Informix will recognize 'new' disk space after the initial restore
command without having to start the restore over in it's entirety.
The first restore command complained of missing disk space:
online.log:
Cannot Open Primary Chunk
'/informix/PRD/sapdata/physdev43/data35', errno = 2
Cannot Open Primary Chunk
'/informix/PRD/sapdata/physdev43/data36', errno = 2
Cannot Open Primary Chunk
'/informix/PRD/sapdata/physdev43/data37', errno = 2
this affected 4 dbspaces.
I let the first restore run to completion (bar_retry = 3). Meanwhile,
my unix admin fixed the space issue. When I restarted the restore, it
did see the missing space, but in the restore log (bar_activity.log), it
reported permission problems:
34 29550 ERROR: Unable to write restore data to the
database server: The chunk '/informix/PRD/sap data/
physdev43/data35' must have owner-ID "informix"
and group-ID "informix"..
The restore did not fail, it kept running. While this attempt at
the restore was running, the unix admin fixed the perms problems. When
this restore (remember, bar_retry is 3) tried the dbspaces again, it was
able to see that all was finally well at the disk level, and restored
the final dbspaces.
2) Informix handled logical log 940776 like a champ. The backup status
for this log was uncertain based on Informix recording the backup
(recorded in ixbar boot file, but not in sysutils catalog). Performing a
logical restore through this log situation with no changes to ixbar or
sysutils catalog, worked flawlessly. Informix restored this log with no
glitches/hesitation. This was a cold restore (ixbar and Netbackup).
Informix is working marvelously for us on our SAP systems. (It has
survived 2 threats of conversion to Oracle).
Thanks for the support,
Norma Jean
-----------------------------------------
============================================================
The information contained in this message may be privileged
and confidential and protected from disclosure. If the
reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an
employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to
the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any
reproduction, dissemination or distribution of this
communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received
this communication in error, please notify us immediately by
replying to the message and deleting it from your computer.
Thank you.
Tellabs
============================================================
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