Copy more than one instance on a single tape in Informix IDS 7.31

Hi. I would like to knwo whether is it possible or not to backup more than one instance in Informix IDS 7.31 on a single tape for later restore all of them. I tried it but after each backup the tape is automatically rewinded and so the other backup superposes the first one. The last one is restored properly. Thank you. Alan

Do you have enough room on disk to back up to a file and then put that file on tape? You could then backup the first database to a file then put that on tape. You could then backup the second db to the same file and then put then put that on the same tape using whatever file system backup you use. We do this with ontape. I think that you can do it with onbar also, but we don't use onbar here so I haven't used it in awhile.

>Massoroto" <alanmas@gmail.com> wrote in message >news:1128515357.105833.246540@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com... > Hi. > > I would like to knwo whether is it possible or not to backup more than > one instance in Informix IDS 7.31 on a single tape for later restore > all of them. I tried it but after each backup the tape is automatically > rewinded and so the other backup superposes the first one. The last one > is restored properly. > > Thank you. > > Alan > I'm assuming ontape here. Yes, you can. Do your backups to a no-rewind device. HOWEVER you can't restore from a no-rewind device, so you will not be able to restore directly from any archive but the first: in order to restore from the second archive onwards you would first have to dd the archive to disk, or another tape. -- Neil Truby t:01932 724027 Director m:07798 811708 Ardenta Limited e:neil.truby@ardenta.com

or you could replan you server so you have one instance but use multiple dbspace sets to emulate each of the current instances Then just backup the whole of the one instance. At restore tiome you could just recover the dbspaces of the the "failed "instance Massoroto wrote: > Hi. > > I would like to knwo whether is it possible or not to backup more than > one instance in Informix IDS 7.31 on a single tape for later restore > all of them. I tried it but after each backup the tape is automatically > rewinded and so the other backup superposes the first one. The last one > is restored properly. > > Thank you. > > Alan

Actually, you can, Neil. You need two sessions open, one to run ontape and the other to enter commands to reposition the tape head at the beginning of the second backup at each stage, e.g. "mt" on Linux and "tctl" on AIX. I have used this on systems with only one tape drive where an Informix archive is appended to a file system backup. "Neil Truby" <neil.truby@ardenta.com> wrote: > I'm assuming ontape here. > Yes, you can. Do your backups to a no-rewind device. HOWEVER you can't > restore from a no-rewind device, so you will not be able to restore directly > from any archive but the first: in order to restore from the second archive > onwards you would first have to dd the archive to disk, or another tape. > > Massoroto" <alanmas@gmail.com> wrote: > >> I would like to know whether is it possible or not to backup more than >> one instance in Informix IDS 7.31 on a single tape for later restore >> all of them. I tried it but after each backup the tape is automatically >> rewinded and so the other backup superposes the first one. The last one >> is restored properly.