Restoring Level 1 Backup ONLY - INFORMIX 9.4

Dear All, I am trying to restore level 1 backup ( with ontape -r ) on a machine ( solaris 8 )on which I have a level 0 backup already restored preveiously ( while restoring I terminated restore at the point when level 0 was completed and system was asking for level 1, my idea was to keep the machine at level 0 status and when ever need arises we should be able to restore level 1 and level 2 to bring the machine to the current level) Now after 2 weeks i wish to restore ONLY LEVEL 1 BACKUP, with ontape -r and I am getting the msg. Physical restore failed - invalid archive level. is there any way to restore level 1 olone, or restore has to be started from level 0 to all the way in one go. thanks & regards

Hi, there should be a parameter named RESTARTABLE_RESTORE in the onconfig file. You can set this to ON or OFF. In your case you want to have it set to ON. Then see if this helps with your situation (I'm not 100 percent sure, but it may be possible). If it was set to OFF and you change it to ON, then you have to start the restore again from scratch (i.e. level 0) for this time. When you interrupt the restore after the restore of the level-0 archive, you then have to leave the server running in the "recovery" phase. If you bring down the server after the level-0 restore, then I doubt you will be able to bring it up again AND continue the restore with the level-1 archive. Actually, the whole backup and restore functionality of IDS is not designed for what you want to do. But there is a chance that it might work anyway. I think a better way would be to restore the level-0 archive and then start restoring logs, but keeping the server in this phase by suspending log restore and resuming it again when backups of new logs are available for restore. However, this feature (aka "Continuous Log Restore") is fully supported only in IDS 11.10.xC1. :-( Regards, Martin -- Martin Fuerderer IBM Informix Development Munich, Germany Information Management IBM Deutschland GmbH Chairman of the Supervisory Board: Hans Ulrich Märki Board of Management: Martin Jetter (Chairman), Rudolf Bauer, Christian Diedrich, Christoph Grandpierre, Matthias Hartmann, Thomas Fell, Michael Diemer Corporate Seat: Stuttgart, Germany; Reg.-Gericht: Amtsgericht Stuttgart, HRB-Nr.: 14 562 WEEE-Reg.-Nr. DE 99369940 ids-bounces@iiug.org wrote on 31.07.2007 10:16:55: > > Dear All, > > I am trying to restore level 1 backup ( with ontape -r ) on a machine ( > solaris 8 )on which I have a level 0 backup already restored preveiously ( > while restoring I terminated restore at the point when level 0 was completed > and system was asking for level 1, my idea was to keep the machine at level 0 > status and when ever need arises we should be able to restore level 1 and > level 2 to bring the machine to the current level) Now after 2 weeks i wish to > restore ONLY LEVEL 1 BACKUP, with ontape -r and I am getting the msg. > > Physical restore failed - invalid archive level. > > is there any way to restore level 1 olone, or restore has to be started from > level 0 to all the way in one go. > > thanks & regards > > ******************************************************************************* > Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum. >

ids-bounces@iiug.org wrote on 07/31/2007 10:16:55 AM: > Dear All, > > I am trying to restore level 1 backup ( with ontape -r ) on a machine ( > solaris 8 )on which I have a level 0 backup already restored preveiously ( > while restoring I terminated restore at the point when level 0 was completed > and system was asking for level 1, my idea was to keep the machine at level 0 > status and when ever need arises we should be able to restore level 1 and > level 2 to bring the machine to the current level) Now after 2 weeksi wish to > restore ONLY LEVEL 1 BACKUP, with ontape -r and I am getting the msg. > > Physical restore failed - invalid archive level. > > is there any way to restore level 1 olone, or restore has to be started from > level 0 to all the way in one go. > What you are trying to do is not possible - or at least not that I know. You'd have to keep 'ontape' unterminated on the standby server and respond 'y' to the question on whether a 'L1' should be restored as soon as you created one. IMHO the whole idea of creating L1 archives only for a very long period of time does not make sense (sooner or later your L1 archives will be L0 effectively) I suggest you try either HDR to create a secondary standby or use the continuous log replay feature - new in IDS 11, see the documentation on continuous log restore in Infocenter (http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/idshelp/v111/index.jsp) (Actually to my knowledge the feature is avalable undocumented in some earlier IDS versions as well) . If you use onbar and and are not yet on IDS 11 AND not afraid of setting up a bit of a hack, you may set up a perpetual restore method. Works with all IDS versions that ship with onbar - see (http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=630&context=SSGU8G&context=SSHPYE&q 1=1210590&uid=swg21210590&loc=en_US&cs=utf-8&lang=en) HTH Tilman

Hi All, This is precisely what the Continuous Log Restore feature of IDS 11 will accomplish. Its not possible prior to IDS 11. Check out ontape -l -C and ontape -l -X in the IDS 11 Backup and Restore Guide. Cheers, Dick Snoke IBM Software Group - ChannelWorks dsnoke@us.ibm.com (404) 487-1595 "Tilman Model-Bosch" <tilman.model-bosch@de.ibm.com> Sent by: ids-bounces@iiug.org 07/31/2007 08:34 AM Please respond to ids@iiug.org To ids@iiug.org cc Subject Re: Restoring Level 1 Backup ONLY - INFORMIX 9.4 [9658] ids-bounces@iiug.org wrote on 07/31/2007 10:16:55 AM: > Dear All, > > I am trying to restore level 1 backup ( with ontape -r ) on a machine ( > solaris 8 )on which I have a level 0 backup already restored preveiously ( > while restoring I terminated restore at the point when level 0 was completed > and system was asking for level 1, my idea was to keep the machine at level 0 > status and when ever need arises we should be able to restore level 1 and > level 2 to bring the machine to the current level) Now after 2 weeksi wish to > restore ONLY LEVEL 1 BACKUP, with ontape -r and I am getting the msg. > > Physical restore failed - invalid archive level. > > is there any way to restore level 1 olone, or restore has to be started from > level 0 to all the way in one go. > What you are trying to do is not possible - or at least not that I know. You'd have to keep 'ontape' unterminated on the standby server and respond 'y' to the question on whether a 'L1' should be restored as soon as you created one. IMHO the whole idea of creating L1 archives only for a very long period of time does not make sense (sooner or later your L1 archives will be L0 effectively) I suggest you try either HDR to create a secondary standby or use the continuous log replay feature - new in IDS 11, see the documentation on continuous log restore in Infocenter (http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/idshelp/v111/index.jsp) (Actually to my knowledge the feature is avalable undocumented in some earlier IDS versions as well) . If you use onbar and and are not yet on IDS 11 AND not afraid of setting up a bit of a hack, you may set up a perpetual restore method. Works with all IDS versions that ship with onbar - see ( http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=630&context=SSGU8G&context=SSHPYE&q1 =1210590&uid=swg21210590&loc=en_US&cs=utf-8&lang=en ) HTH Tilman ******************************************************************************* Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum.