Re: Logical Logs to Disk?

[...] >Informix support has never officially sanctioned this method. Their >answer is that ontape was designed to go to tape, not to disk. However, >there are hundreds of companies around the world that backup their >logical logs to disk. No one has ever pointed out any technical issues >with backing up to disk. It seems to be a matter of preference. [...] Informix support *does* officially sanction this method, as has been pointed out on this newsgroup several times. Informix internal Technical Info note #6125 (TechInfo) is a formal record stating this. It is up to the DBA to account for the expectations of the ontape program regarding file existance, ownership, and operator interaction. HTH, Clem _______________________________________________________________ Clem Akins (aka clem@informix.com) Menlo Park x5937 Customer Course Development Informix Software, Inc Last seen: Back in "The Bay Area"--San Francisco!

In article <775p0b$ggo$1@news.xmission.com>, Clem Akins <clem@informix.com> writes > >[...] >>Informix support has never officially sanctioned this method. Their >>answer is that ontape was designed to go to tape, not to disk. However, >>there are hundreds of companies around the world that backup their >>logical logs to disk. No one has ever pointed out any technical issues >>with backing up to disk. It seems to be a matter of preference. >[...] > >Informix support *does* officially sanction this method, as has been >pointed out on this newsgroup several times. Informix internal >Technical Info note #6125 (TechInfo) is a formal record stating >this. It is up to the DBA to account for the expectations of the >ontape program regarding file existance, ownership, and operator >interaction. > And that has just been added to the FAQ!! >HTH, > >Clem >_______________________________________________________________ >Clem Akins (aka clem@informix.com) Menlo Park x5937 >Customer Course Development Informix Software, Inc >Last seen: Back in "The Bay Area"--San Francisco! -- David Williams

David Williams wrote: > > In article <775p0b$ggo$1@news.xmission.com>, Clem Akins > <clem@informix.com> writes > > > >[...] > >>Informix support has never officially sanctioned this method. Their > >>answer is that ontape was designed to go to tape, not to disk. However, > >>there are hundreds of companies around the world that backup their > >>logical logs to disk. No one has ever pointed out any technical issues > >>with backing up to disk. It seems to be a matter of preference. > >[...] > > > >Informix support *does* officially sanction this method, as has been > >pointed out on this newsgroup several times. Informix internal > >Technical Info note #6125 (TechInfo) is a formal record stating > >this. It is up to the DBA to account for the expectations of the > >ontape program regarding file existance, ownership, and operator > >interaction. > > > > And that has just been added to the FAQ!! OK I'm going to join this one now. I believe in backing logs up to disk. I do not trust tape any more than disk nor any less (so long as I can avoid DAT and am allowed to use DLTs). However, I'm neither stupid nor suicidal. I backup logs to a filesystem built on RAID 5 arrays with redundant power supplies and controllers. Also the logical log files are backed up to tape DAILY along with the daily system archives using Legato and I keep 7 days worth of logs on disk to speed restores. This means that as opposed to ontape -c which will safely put my logs on one tape set I have each logfile safely on SEVEN tape sets, seven redundant copies and todays log files are at risk for < 24 hours and the risk is minimal due to the disk farm redundancies. Art S. Kagel

In article <eh453CAE7Jm2Ewg8@smooth1.demon.co.uk>, David Williams <djw@smooth1.demon.co.uk> wrote: > In article <775p0b$ggo$1@news.xmission.com>, Clem Akins > <clem@informix.com> writes > > > >[...] > >>Informix support has never officially sanctioned this method. Their > >>answer is that ontape was designed to go to tape, not to disk. However, > >>there are hundreds of companies around the world that backup their > >>logical logs to disk. No one has ever pointed out any technical issues > >>with backing up to disk. It seems to be a matter of preference. > >[...] > > > >Informix support *does* officially sanction this method, as has been > >pointed out on this newsgroup several times. Informix internal > >Technical Info note #6125 (TechInfo) is a formal record stating > >this. It is up to the DBA to account for the expectations of the > >ontape program regarding file existance, ownership, and operator > >interaction. > > > > And that has just been added to the FAQ!! > > >HTH, > > > >Clem > >_______________________________________________________________ > >Clem Akins (aka clem@informix.com) Menlo Park x5937 > >Customer Course Development Informix Software, Inc > >Last seen: Back in "The Bay Area"--San Francisco! > > -- > David Williams > [... snipped for shortness ... ] Sorry if this is boring already We run >100 INFORMIX V7.12 Instances on >100 machines spread over our small country. V7.12 does not support onbar. We will migrate to V7.30 during the next months. ADSM is a storage manager from the IBM storage dept. (now Tivoli) - with clients available also for our SNI SINIX platforms For now we use ONARCHIVE+ADSM with a lot of scripting done around it during late 1995/early 1996 to simulate what onbar/ADSM will hopefully deliver in same true quality and reliability and monitoring/alerting. We log continuously to disk and do daily archives (0,1,2,1,2) to disk, gzip the results, and use ADSM to transport the resulting files via WAN to an IBM MVS Host where the ADSM Server is located, writing to robot DLT tapes No problems during the last 30 months - around 20 restores done. Local (i.e.remote) Logical Logs are on mirrored disks as is the database We do not use a single remote tape at all - just our Hosts's robot-DLTs We will start to test onbar/ADSM somewhen around April 1999 [When we get somewhere I'm willing to write a chapter on IDS 7.30/onbar/ADSM with SuSe or RedHat Linux for the excellet FAQ during late spring] Regards Dick Richard Kofler debis Systemhaus EDVg Vienna / Austria -----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==---------- http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own

Every Informix Admin class I've taken, or any technical session I've sat through said "don't run logical logs to disk". I really never believed that line, because it always made sense to me that I could get better redundancy (by making the multiple copies) and I frankly have had my share of tape read errors. So... What should I be using for my device name, block size, and tape size? Thanks.