restore IDS 9.4 directly from unix tape backup?

Hello everyone. I think this question may have been discussed before, perhaps not. With oracle it is common practice with dbas, when performing DR excercises to have the entire oracle rdbms software restored to the DR machine via a regular UNIX tape backup. Does this same principle apply to IDS 9.4 Informix (as well as later versions - IE: IDS 10 FX7)? My understanding is that this method would indeed work but does anyone have any experience/thoughts on this? Thanks

> -----Original Message----- > From: ids-bounces@iiug.org [mailto:ids-bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf Of WILL > LANDSTROM > Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 8:11 AM > To: ids@iiug.org > Subject: restore IDS 9.4 directly from unix tape backup? [11930] > > Hello everyone. I think this question may have been discussed before, > perhaps > not. With oracle it is common practice with dbas, when performing DR > excercises to have the entire oracle rdbms software restored to the DR > machine > via a regular UNIX tape backup. Does this same principle apply to IDS 9.4 > Informix (as well as later versions - IE: IDS 10 FX7)? My understanding is > that this method would indeed work but does anyone have any > experience/thoughts on this? Thanks > ON the data side, if you're using raw devices, a UNIX backup will only restore the device files and links to them for your database. No data. Nada. Nothing. If you use cooked files and do not issue onmode -c block before you run your OS backup, you're just about equally hosed. IDS has good backup and restore tools, use them. ON the software side, this is how I build a backup or test server (note that the hardware is identical): Install a base core OS, restore a level 0 backup of the primary's OS and change the hostname, networking info and IDS configuration params (sqlhosts and DBSERVERNAME and DBSERVERALIASES in onconfig). Then I restore an Informix backup and run my test or start replication. --EEM > > ************************************************************************ ** > ***** > Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum. > > See you at the IIUG Informix 2008 Conference > The Power Conference for Informix Professionals > April 27 - 30, 2008 Marriott Overland Park (Kansas City), Kansas > http://www.iiug.org/conf > Registration Now Open!!

Hello Will, in my opinion, it's only partially possible, there are several things to keep in mind. In the past I installed informix in a cluster environment, so the software was installed in a separate filesystem (which in your case can be restored on an other system in a filesystem with the same name (for INFORMIXDIR))) and the 2 systems were configured in the same way. (informix was running only on one of the 2 systems, not simultaneously) Things to consider : /etc/passwd : user informix /etc/group : group informix /etc/services /etc/profile /etc/system - probably the cobol runtime system rts32 in /opt/lib/cobol/bin - probably the C-compiler - maybe the termcap file if you use a specific one - location of your logfiles (informix and onbar) - location of dumps (af and shmem files) - the start-stop script in /etc/init.d (with links to /etc/rc2.d and /etc/rc0.d) - workdirectories for temporary files (check DBTEMP and PSORT_DBTEMP) - the way your users connect (client-server or local login) If informix runs on 2 systems, the ip-address and hostname must be different, so /etc/hosts, $INFORMIXDIR/etc/sqlhosts. If via local logins, the users must be defined in /etc/passwd (+ /etc/shadow) and /etc/group Consider their home-directories and the programs to execute also in this case. As you speak about 9.4 , I think that will be all. Up to 9.2 or 9.21, I think there also were 3 libraries in /usr/lib : iosm09a.so , ipldd09a.so and ismdd09a.so All the above of course only handles the software, names or links to dbspaces and chunks are not considered. Good luck, Jacques Lapeire -----Original Message----- From: ids-bounces@iiug.org [mailto:ids-bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf Of WILL LANDSTROM Sent: woensdag 30 april 2008 15:11 To: ids@iiug.org Subject: restore IDS 9.4 directly from unix tape backup? [11930] Hello everyone. I think this question may have been discussed before, perhaps not. With oracle it is common practice with dbas, when performing DR excercises to have the entire oracle rdbms software restored to the DR machine via a regular UNIX tape backup. Does this same principle apply to IDS 9.4 Informix (as well as later versions - IE: IDS 10 FX7)? My understanding is that this method would indeed work but does anyone have any experience/thoughts on this? Thanks ************************************************************************ ******* Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum. See you at the IIUG Informix 2008 Conference The Power Conference for Informix Professionals April 27 - 30, 2008 Marriott Overland Park (Kansas City), Kansas http://www.iiug.org/conf Registration Now Open!!

EEM. Thank you. I understand what you are saying about NOT using unix backups to restore the data in the database. But what I was thinking of doing was restore the Informix RDBMS sofware via a UNIX backup (which I believe you are saying is how you do that also). But I was thinking of using an ONBAR backup to restore the data in the database. Does that seem viable to you?

> -----Original Message----- > From: ids-bounces@iiug.org [mailto:ids-bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf Of WILL > LANDSTROM > Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 10:18 AM > To: ids@iiug.org > Subject: Re: RE: restore IDS 9.4 directly from unix tap.... [11936] > > EEM. Thank you. I understand what you are saying about NOT using unix > backups > to restore the data in the database. But what I was thinking of doing was > restore the Informix RDBMS sofware via a UNIX backup (which I believe you > are > saying is how you do that also). But I was thinking of using an ONBAR > backup > to restore the data in the database. Does that seem viable to you? That should work fine as long as the paths (links, etc.) to your dbspaces match, etc. -EEM > > > ************************************************************************ ** > ***** > Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum. > > See you at the IIUG Informix 2008 Conference > The Power Conference for Informix Professionals > April 27 - 30, 2008 Marriott Overland Park (Kansas City), Kansas > http://www.iiug.org/conf > Registration Now Open!!

To create an HDR secondary, you need to backup the primary and restore= on the secondary. ------------------------------------- Madison Pruet, STSM IDS Replication Architect = "WILL LANDSTROM" = <willlandstrom@ya = hoo.com> = To Sent by: ids@iiug.org = ids-bounces@iiug. = cc org = Subj= ect restore IDS 9.4 directly from un= ix 04/30/2008 08:11 tape backup? [11930] = AM = = = Please respond to = ids@iiug.org = = = Hello everyone. I think this question may have been discussed before, perhaps not. With oracle it is common practice with dbas, when performing DR excercises to have the entire oracle rdbms software restored to the DR machine via a regular UNIX tape backup. Does this same principle apply to IDS 9= .4 Informix (as well as later versions - IE: IDS 10 FX7)? My understanding= is that this method would indeed work but does anyone have any experience/thoughts on this? Thanks ***********************************************************************= ******** Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum. See you at the IIUG Informix 2008 Conference The Power Conference for Informix Professionals April 27 - 30, 2008 Marriott Overland Park (Kansas City), Kansas http://www.iiug.org/conf Registration Now Open!! =

I will be out of the office Thursday and Friday May 1st and 2nd returning on Monday May 5th. If you need assistance please contact Kelli Borden at ext 5964. >>> ids 04/30/08 17:14 >>> To create an HDR secondary, you need to backup the primary and restore= on the secondary. ------------------------------------- Madison Pruet, STSM IDS Replication Architect = "WILL LANDSTROM" = <willlandstrom@ya = hoo.com> = To Sent by: ids@iiug.org = ids-bounces@iiug. = cc org = Subj= ect restore IDS 9.4 directly from un= ix 04/30/2008 08:11 tape backup? [11930] = AM = = = Please respond to = ids@iiug.org = = = Hello everyone. I think this question may have been discussed before, perhaps not. With oracle it is common practice with dbas, when performing DR excercises to have the entire oracle rdbms software restored to the DR machine via a regular UNIX tape backup. Does this same principle apply to IDS 9= ..4 Informix (as well as later versions - IE: IDS 10 FX7)? My understanding= is that this method would indeed work but does anyone have any experience/thoughts on this? Thanks ***********************************************************************= ******** Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum. See you at the IIUG Informix 2008 Conference The Power Conference for Informix Professionals April 27 - 30, 2008 Marriott Overland Park (Kansas City), Kansas http://www.iiug.org/conf Registration Now Open!! = ******************************************************************************* Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum. See you at the IIUG Informix 2008 Conference The Power Conference for Informix Professionals April 27 - 30, 2008 Marriott Overland Park (Kansas City), Kansas http://www.iiug.org/conf Registration Now Open!!

WILL LANDSTROM wrote: I assume you are talking about an OS level fail over setup where the secondary machine restarts taking over the disks (or at least a copy of the disks) containing the actual data if the primary is detected to have failed. What you want to do will work fine as long as you perform the archive and restore as root so that the file permissions will be properly maintained. Strictly speaking it is unneccessary, but for practicalities sake you should at least copy the configuration files ($INFORMIXDIR/etc/$ONCONFIG and $INFORMIXDIR/etc/sqlhosts) to the backup machine regularly. However, you should probably consider using Informix HDR for a hot replicant with separate disks. This will provide instant failover without the delay to restart the back up machine and start a copy of the IDS server and wait for recovery of the failed data on disk. FWIW. > Hello everyone. I think this question may have been discussed before, perhaps > not. With oracle it is common practice with dbas, when performing DR > excercises to have the entire oracle rdbms software restored to the DR machine > via a regular UNIX tape backup. Does this same principle apply to IDS 9.4 > Informix (as well as later versions - IE: IDS 10 FX7)? My understanding is > that this method would indeed work but does anyone have any > experience/thoughts on this? Thanks > > -- Art S. Kagel Oninit (www.oninit.com) IIUG Board of Directors (art@iiug.org)

On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 6:11 AM, WILL LANDSTROM <willlandstrom@yahoo.com> wrote: > Hello everyone. I think this question may have been discussed before, perhaps > not. With oracle it is common practice with dbas, when performing DR > excercises to have the entire oracle rdbms software restored to the DR machine > via a regular UNIX tape backup. Does this same principle apply to IDS 9.4 > Informix (as well as later versions - IE: IDS 10 FX7)? My understanding is > that this method would indeed work but does anyone have any > experience/thoughts on this? Thanks I've seen a number of answers - but nothing succinct and to the point. Yes, you can do backups of the software in $INFORMIXDIR and restore it on other machines. There are a few gotchas. 1. HP-UX needs stuff from /usr/lib/informix (JREs). 2. AIX needs a file - the Informix loader domain file: touch /var/adm/ifx_loader_domain chgrp informix /var/adm/ifx_loader_domain chmod 660 /var/adm/ifx_loader_domain Otherwise, from 9.40 through 11.10, you don't need anything unusual from outside $INFORMIXDIR. IDS 11.50 requires care with software called IBM Global Security Kit (GSKit). Watch it! -- Jonathan Leffler #include <disclaimer.h> Email: jleffler@earthlink.net, jleffler@us.ibm.com Guardian of DBD::Informix v2008.0229 -- http://dbi.perl.org/ "Blessed are we who can laugh at ourselves, for we shall never cease to be amused." NB: Please do not use this email for correspondence. I don't necessarily read it every week, even.