Information on Log Backup

Hi, I am using IDS 7.x on Windows NT server. I would like to know that if we take continuous log backup on informix with the following command 'ontape -c' on one tape during the day. Can you please advise that if we restored the previous days database backup with "ontape -r" and then on top of that if we restored today's log's backup "ontape -l", will it work and will I get the data as on now then. Thanks and Regards VAIDYANATHAN KRISHNAN (GANESH) _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

Hi, when you do "ontape -r" it will do both, physical restore and after that logical restore. There's no need to do an extra "ontape -l". (That would only be necessary if you would have done "ontape -p".) "ontape -r" will ask for the respective tapes, including the log tapes. After the physical restore (i.e. data chunks of your dbspaces), "ontape -r" will ask for the correct tape with logical logs. This will be a prompt roughly like: "Logical log restore should begin with log number x ." where the log number is the logical log unique ID. At this point you have to provide the correct log backup tape which contains this logical log. Any other (log backup) tape will be rejected. This is the reason why during log bckup upon completing a log backup tape, ontape("ontape -c" or "ontape -a") will tell you which logical logs are contained on that specific tape. Making a note of this will save you searching and trying log backup tapes during restore (where usually there's little time because everybody, your boss included, impatiently waits for the restore to be completed ...). This means that for a successful restore up to "now", you have to have all logical log backup tapes written (i.e. completed) between the backup time of the (level 0) archive that you have restored and "now". This may include a tape with salvaged logical logs. You are writing one logical log tape each day, if I understood you correctly. In that case after restoring yesterday's archive (physical restore), you will then first be asked for the logical log backup tape from yesterday. After restoring the necessary logs from that tape (ontape will choose the correct logs to restore by itself), you can then restore logs from today. You will be prompted somewhat like: "Do you have another logical log backup tape ? y/n", so that you can restore consecutive logical logs from as many log backup tapes as you want ... The keyword here is *consecutive*. There can not be a gap between logical logs, as this would make things inconsistent. Regards, Martin -- Martin Fuerderer IBM Informix Development Munich Data Management Solutions forum.subscriber@iiug.org wrote on 27.05.2004 06:29:42: > Hi, > I am using IDS 7.x on Windows NT server. I would like to know that if we > take continuous log backup on informix with the following command 'ontape > -c' on one tape during the day. > > Can you please advise that if we restored the previous days database backup > with "ontape -r" and then on top of that if we restored today's log's backup > "ontape -l", will it work and will I get the data as on now then. > > Thanks and Regards > VAIDYANATHAN KRISHNAN > (GANESH)

We have restored a few times and that is exactly how it works. Very important to write down the tape number and logs start and end. Saves a lot of headaches. We were curious though the current log that is still writing "the C log in an onstat -l " and hasn't been backed up to tape but does have a log id # assigned , does that get restored ? We don't believe it does. How do you capture those transactions ? Is there a point in time restore that is additionally needed? "Martin Fuer...." <MARTINFU@de.ibm. com> To Sent by: ids@iiug.org forum.subscriber@ cc iiug.org Subject Re: Information on Log Backup 05/27/2004 05:14 [3036] AM Hi, when you do "ontape -r" it will do both, physical restore and after that logical restore. There's no need to do an extra "ontape -l". (That would only be necessary if you would have done "ontape -p".) "ontape -r" will ask for the respective tapes, including the log tapes. After the physical restore (i.e. data chunks of your dbspaces), "ontape -r" will ask for the correct tape with logical logs. This will be a prompt roughly like: "Logical log restore should begin with log number x ." where the log number is the logical log unique ID. At this point you have to provide the correct log backup tape which contains this logical log. Any other (log backup) tape will be rejected. This is the reason why during log bckup upon completing a log backup tape, ontape("ontape -c" or "ontape -a") will tell you which logical logs are contained on that specific tape. Making a note of this will save you searching and trying log backup tapes during restore (where usually there's little time because everybody, your boss included, impatiently waits for the restore to be completed ...). This means that for a successful restore up to "now", you have to have all logical log backup tapes written (i.e. completed) between the backup time of the (level 0) archive that you have restored and "now". This may include a tape with salvaged logical logs. You are writing one logical log tape each day, if I understood you correctly. In that case after restoring yesterday's archive (physical restore), you will then first be asked for the logical log backup tape from yesterday. After restoring the necessary logs from that tape (ontape will choose the correct logs to restore by itself), you can then restore logs from today. You will be prompted somewhat like: "Do you have another logical log backup tape ? y/n", so that you can restore consecutive logical logs from as many log backup tapes as you want ... The keyword here is *consecutive*. There can not be a gap between logical logs, as this would make things inconsistent. Regards, Martin -- Martin Fuerderer IBM Informix Development Munich Data Management Solutions forum.subscriber@iiug.org wrote on 27.05.2004 06:29:42: > Hi, > I am using IDS 7.x on Windows NT server. I would like to know that if we > take continuous log backup on informix with the following command 'ontape > -c' on one tape during the day. > > Can you please advise that if we restored the previous days database backup > with "ontape -r" and then on top of that if we restored today's log's backup > "ontape -l", will it work and will I get the data as on now then. > > Thanks and Regards > VAIDYANATHAN KRISHNAN > (GANESH)

Hi, there's no point-in-time (PIT) restore possible with ontape. For that you would have to use ON-Bar, but that's a different story ... As part of a restore operation ("ontape -r") you can salvage logical logs that have not yet been backed up. ontape will ask you whether you want to salvage logical logs. If you choose "yes" you are prompted to provide an extra tape (which will then contain the salvaged logs only). During this salvage it should backup all logs that are available, including the current log. This should basically be the same behaviour for most versions (though I'm not quite sure, which of the IDS 7.xx.xxx versions is meant by "7.x"). There might be differences among versions in the way of prompting the user, but it should not have an adverse effect on the principal salvaging. Of course, during restore you then have to restore these logs from the salvage log tape (usually the last log backup tape to restore). This should restore those transactions in there. Obviously, if the transactions were not committed at the time when server was going down, they would be rolled back after log restore is completed. Thus you would not "see" these transactions after the restore. But transactions that were committed should be properly restored. Regards, Martin -- Martin Fuerderer IBM Informix Development Munich Data Management Solutions John_Caron@mab.uscourts.gov wrote on 27.05.2004 14:04:00: > > > > > We have restored a few times and that is exactly how it works. Very > important to write down the tape number and logs start and end. Saves a > lot of headaches. > > We were curious though the current log that is still writing "the C log in > an onstat -l " and hasn't been backed up to tape but does have a log id # > assigned , does that get restored ? We don't believe it does. How do you > capture those transactions ? > > Is there a point in time restore that is additionally needed? > > > > > > > > "Martin Fuer...." > <MARTINFU@de.ibm. > com> To > Sent by: ids@iiug.org > forum.subscriber@ cc > iiug.org > Subject > Re: Information on Log Backup > 05/27/2004 05:14 [3036] > AM > > > > > > > > > > Hi, > > when you do "ontape -r" it will do both, physical restore and after that > logical restore. > There's no need to do an extra "ontape -l". (That would only be necessary > if you would > have done "ontape -p".) "ontape -r" will ask for the respective tapes, > including the log > tapes. > > After the physical restore (i.e. data chunks of your dbspaces), "ontape > -r" will ask for > the correct tape with logical logs. This will be a prompt roughly like: > "Logical log restore should begin with log number x ." > where the log number is the logical log unique ID. At this point you have > to provide the > correct log backup tape which contains this logical log. Any other (log > backup) tape > will be rejected. > This is the reason why during log bckup upon completing a log backup tape, > ontape> ("ontape -c" or "ontape -a") will tell you which logical logs are > contained on that > specific tape. Making a note of this will save you searching and trying > log backup > tapes during restore (where usually there's little time because everybody, > your boss > included, impatiently waits for the restore to be completed ...). > > This means that for a successful restore up to "now", you have to have all > logical log > backup tapes written (i.e. completed) between the backup time of the > (level 0) archive > that you have restored and "now". This may include a tape with salvaged > logical logs. > > You are writing one logical log tape each day, if I understood you > correctly. > In that case after restoring yesterday's archive (physical restore), you > will then first > be asked for the logical log backup tape from yesterday. After restoring > the necessary > logs from that tape (ontape will choose the correct logs to restore by > itself), you can then > restore logs from today. You will be prompted somewhat like: "Do you have > another > logical log backup tape ? y/n", so that you can restore consecutive > logical logs from > as many log backup tapes as you want ... The keyword here is > *consecutive*. There can > not be a gap between logical logs, as this would make things inconsistent. > > Regards, > Martin > -- > Martin Fuerderer > IBM Informix Development Munich > Data Management Solutions > > forum.subscriber@iiug.org wrote on 27.05.2004 06:29:42: > > > Hi, > > I am using IDS 7.x on Windows NT server. I would like to know that if we > > > take continuous log backup on informix with the following command > 'ontape > > -c' on one tape during the day. > > > > Can you please advise that if we restored the previous days database > backup > > with "ontape -r" and then on top of that if we restored today's log's > backup > > "ontape -l", will it work and will I get the data as on now then. > > > > Thanks and Regards > > VAIDYANATHAN KRISHNAN > > (GANESH) > > > >

when you start ontape -r you are asked if you want to backup the existing logs from the existing system. These logs can be restored at the end of the ontape -r when you are prompted for: "do you want to restore logs ?" -- Gerd Kaluzinski Tel. :+49-(0)7541-585-5000 Fax :+49-(0)7541-585-5500 BYTEC GmbH mailto:support@bytec.de Hermann-Metzger-Str.7 http://www.bytec.de 88045 Friedrichshafen

What does the "ontape -p" do? -----Original Message----- From: Martin Fuer.... [mailto:MARTINFU@de.ibm.com] Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 4:14 AM To: ids@iiug.org Subject: Re: Information on Log Backup [3036] Hi, when you do "ontape -r" it will do both, physical restore and after that logical restore. There's no need to do an extra "ontape -l". (That would only be necessary if you would have done "ontape -p".) "ontape -r" will ask for the respective tapes, including the log tapes. After the physical restore (i.e. data chunks of your dbspaces), "ontape -r" will ask for the correct tape with logical logs. This will be a prompt roughly like: "Logical log restore should begin with log number x ." where the log number is the logical log unique ID. At this point you have to provide the correct log backup tape which contains this logical log. Any other (log backup) tape will be rejected. This is the reason why during log bckup upon completing a log backup tape, ontape("ontape -c" or "ontape -a") will tell you which logical logs are contained on that specific tape. Making a note of this will save you searching and trying log backup tapes during restore (where usually there's little time because everybody, your boss included, impatiently waits for the restore to be completed ...). This means that for a successful restore up to "now", you have to have all logical log backup tapes written (i.e. completed) between the backup time of the (level 0) archive that you have restored and "now". This may include a tape with salvaged logical logs. You are writing one logical log tape each day, if I understood you correctly. In that case after restoring yesterday's archive (physical restore), you will then first be asked for the logical log backup tape from yesterday. After restoring the necessary logs from that tape (ontape will choose the correct logs to restore by itself), you can then restore logs from today. You will be prompted somewhat like: "Do you have another logical log backup tape ? y/n", so that you can restore consecutive logical logs from as many log backup tapes as you want ... The keyword here is *consecutive*. There can not be a gap between logical logs, as this would make things inconsistent. Regards, Martin -- Martin Fuerderer IBM Informix Development Munich Data Management Solutions forum.subscriber@iiug.org wrote on 27.05.2004 06:29:42: > Hi, > I am using IDS 7.x on Windows NT server. I would like to know that if we > take continuous log backup on informix with the following command 'ontape > -c' on one tape during the day. > > Can you please advise that if we restored the previous days database backup > with "ontape -r" and then on top of that if we restored today's log's backup > "ontape -l", will it work and will I get the data as on now then. > > Thanks and Regards > VAIDYANATHAN KRISHNAN > (GANESH)

Physical restore for HDR -----Original Message----- From: Meza, Silvana [mailto:smeza@fheg.follett.com] Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 8:49 AM To: ids@iiug.org Subject: RE: Information on Log Backup [3042] What does the "ontape -p" do? -----Original Message----- From: Martin Fuer.... [mailto:MARTINFU@de.ibm.com] Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 4:14 AM To: ids@iiug.org Subject: Re: Information on Log Backup [3036] Hi, when you do "ontape -r" it will do both, physical restore and after that logical restore. There's no need to do an extra "ontape -l". (That would only be necessary if you would have done "ontape -p".) "ontape -r" will ask for the respective tapes, including the log tapes. After the physical restore (i.e. data chunks of your dbspaces), "ontape -r" will ask for the correct tape with logical logs. This will be a prompt roughly like: "Logical log restore should begin with log number x ." where the log number is the logical log unique ID. At this point you have to provide the correct log backup tape which contains this logical log. Any other (log backup) tape will be rejected. This is the reason why during log bckup upon completing a log backup tape, ontape("ontape -c" or "ontape -a") will tell you which logical logs are contained on that specific tape. Making a note of this will save you searching and trying log backup tapes during restore (where usually there's little time because everybody, your boss included, impatiently waits for the restore to be completed ...). This means that for a successful restore up to "now", you have to have all logical log backup tapes written (i.e. completed) between the backup time of the (level 0) archive that you have restored and "now". This may include a tape with salvaged logical logs. You are writing one logical log tape each day, if I understood you correctly. In that case after restoring yesterday's archive (physical restore), you will then first be asked for the logical log backup tape from yesterday. After restoring the necessary logs from that tape (ontape will choose the correct logs to restore by itself), you can then restore logs from today. You will be prompted somewhat like: "Do you have another logical log backup tape ? y/n", so that you can restore consecutive logical logs from as many log backup tapes as you want ... The keyword here is *consecutive*. There can not be a gap between logical logs, as this would make things inconsistent. Regards, Martin -- Martin Fuerderer IBM Informix Development Munich Data Management Solutions forum.subscriber@iiug.org wrote on 27.05.2004 06:29:42: > Hi, > I am using IDS 7.x on Windows NT server. I would like to know that if we > take continuous log backup on informix with the following command 'ontape > -c' on one tape during the day. > > Can you please advise that if we restored the previous days database backup > with "ontape -r" and then on top of that if we restored today's log's backup > "ontape -l", will it work and will I get the data as on now then. > > Thanks and Regards > VAIDYANATHAN KRISHNAN > (GANESH)

--0__=08BBE432DFCF48E08f9e8a93df938690918c08BBE432DFCF48E0 Content-type: multipart/alternative; Boundary="1__=08BBE432DFCF48E08f9e8a93df938690918c08BBE432DFCF48E0" --1__=08BBE432DFCF48E08f9e8a93df938690918c08BBE432DFCF48E0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Hi, "ontape -p" will perform physical restore. "ontape -l" will perform logical restore. "ontape -r" will perform both physical and logical restore. Thanks, Paresh. "Meza, Silvana" <smeza@fheg.folle To: ids@iiug.org tt.com> cc: Sent by: Subject: RE: Information on Log Backup [3042] forum.subscriber@ iiug.org 05/27/2004 10:48 AM What does the "ontape -p" do? -----Original Message----- From: Martin Fuer.... [mailto:MARTINFU@de.ibm.com] Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 4:14 AM To: ids@iiug.org Subject: Re: Information on Log Backup [3036] Hi, when you do "ontape -r" it will do both, physical restore and after that logical restore. There's no need to do an extra "ontape -l". (That would only be necessary if you would have done "ontape -p".) "ontape -r" will ask for the respective tapes, including the log tapes. After the physical restore (i.e. data chunks of your dbspaces), "ontape -r" will ask for the correct tape with logical logs. This will be a prompt roughly like: "Logical log restore should begin with log number x ." where the log number is the logical log unique ID. At this point you have to provide the correct log backup tape which contains this logical log. Any other (log backup) tape will be rejected. This is the reason why during log bckup upon completing a log backup tape, ontape("ontape -c" or "ontape -a") will tell you which logical logs are contained on that specific tape. Making a note of this will save you searching and trying log backup tapes during restore (where usually there's little time because everybody, your boss included, impatiently waits for the restore to be completed ...). This means that for a successful restore up to "now", you have to have all logical log backup tapes written (i.e. completed) between the backup time of the (level 0) archive that you have restored and "now". This may include a tape with salvaged logical logs. You are writing one logical log tape each day, if I understood you correctly. In that case after restoring yesterday's archive (physical restore), you will then first be asked for the logical log backup tape from yesterday. After restoring the necessary logs from that tape (ontape will choose the correct logs to restore by itself), you can then restore logs from today. You will be prompted somewhat like: "Do you have another logical log backup tape ? y/n", so that you can restore consecutive logical logs from as many log backup tapes as you want ... The keyword here is *consecutive*. There can not be a gap between logical logs, as this would make things inconsistent. Regards, Martin -- Martin Fuerderer IBM Informix Development Munich Data Management Solutions forum.subscriber@iiug.org wrote on 27.05.2004 06:29:42: > Hi, > I am using IDS 7.x on Windows NT server. I would like to know that if we > take continuous log backup on informix with the following command 'ontape > -c' on one tape during the day. > > Can you please advise that if we restored the previous days database backup > with "ontape -r" and then on top of that if we restored today's log's backup > "ontape -l", will it work and will I get the data as on now then. > > Thanks and Regards > VAIDYANATHAN KRISHNAN > (GANESH) --1__=08BBE432DFCF48E08f9e8a93df938690918c08BBE432DFCF48E0 Content-type: text/html; charset=US-ASCII Content-Disposition: inline <html><body> <p>Hi,<br> <br> &quot;ontape -p&quot; will perform physical restore. <br> &quot;ontape -l&quot; will perform logical restore. <br> &quot;ontape -r&quot; will perform both physical and logical restore. <br> <br> Thanks,<br> Paresh.<br> <br> <img src="cid:10__=08BBE432DFCF48E08f9e8a93df938@us.ibm.com" width="16" height="16" alt="Inactive hide details for &quot;Meza, Silvana&quot; &lt;smeza@fheg.follett.com&gt;">&quot;Meza, Silvana&quot; &lt;smeza@fheg.follett.com&gt;<br> <br> <br> <table V5DOTBL=true width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr valign="top"><td width="1%"><img src="cid:20__=08BBE432DFCF48E08f9e8a93df938@us.ibm.com" border="0" height="1" width="72" alt=""><br> </td><td style="background-image:url(cid:30__=08BBE432DFCF48E08f9e8a93df938@us.ibm.com); background-repeat: no-repeat; " width="1%"><img src="cid:20__=08BBE432DFCF48E08f9e8a93df938@us.ibm.com" border="0" height="1" width="225" alt=""><br> <ul> <ul> <ul> <ul><b><font size="2">&quot;Meza, Silvana&quot; &lt;smeza@fheg.follett.com&gt;</font></b><br> <font size="2">Sent by: forum.subscriber@iiug.org</font> <p><font size="2">05/27/2004 10:48 AM</font></ul> </ul> </ul> </ul> </td><td width="100%"><img src="cid:20__=08BBE432DFCF48E08f9e8a93df938@us.ibm.com" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""><br> <font size="1" face="Arial"> </font><br> <font size="2"> To: </font><font size="2">ids@iiug.org</font><br> <font size="2"> cc: </font><br> <font size="2"> Subject: </font><font size="2">RE: Information on Log Backup [3042]</font></td></tr> </table> <br> <br> <tt>What does the &quot;ontape -p&quot; do?<br> <br> -----Original Message-----<br> From: Martin Fuer.... [<a href="mailto:MARTINFU@de.ibm.com">mailto:MARTINFU@de.ibm.com</a>]<br> Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 4:14 AM<br> To: ids@iiug.org<br> Subject: Re: Information on Log Backup [3036] <br> <br> <br> Hi,<br> <br> when you do &quot;ontape -r&quot; it will do both, physical restore and after that <br> logical restore.<br> There's no need to do an extra &quot;ontape -l&quot;. (That would only be necessary <br> if you would<br> have done &quot;ontape -p&quot;.) &quot;ontape -r&quot; will ask for the respective tapes, <br> including the log<br> tapes.<br> <br> After the physical restore (i.e. data chunks of your dbspaces), &quot;ontape <br> -r&quot; will ask for<br> the correct tape with logical logs. This will be a prompt roughly like:<br> &nbsp;&quot;Logical log restore should begin with log number x .&quot;<br> where the log number is the logical log unique ID. At this point you have <br> to provide the<br> correct log backup tape which contains this logical log. Any other (log <br> backup) tape<br> will be rejected.<br> This is the reason why d

ontape-p performs a physical restore and is used when start HDR. However, I use it often to perform a restore of our production env to create dev/test env's. Once the restore is complete I perform a onmode -d standard, followed by onmode -c and onmode -m. Thanks "Meza, Silvana" <smeza@fheg.follett.com> Sent by: forum.subscriber@iiug.org 05/27/04 11:48 AM To ids@iiug.org cc Subject RE: Information on Log Backup [3042] What does the "ontape -p" do? -----Original Message----- From: Martin Fuer.... [mailto:MARTINFU@de.ibm.com] Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 4:14 AM To: ids@iiug.org Subject: Re: Information on Log Backup [3036] Hi, when you do "ontape -r" it will do both, physical restore and after that logical restore. There's no need to do an extra "ontape -l". (That would only be necessary if you would have done "ontape -p".) "ontape -r" will ask for the respective tapes, including the log tapes. After the physical restore (i.e. data chunks of your dbspaces), "ontape -r" will ask for the correct tape with logical logs. This will be a prompt roughly like: "Logical log restore should begin with log number x ." where the log number is the logical log unique ID. At this point you have to provide the correct log backup tape which contains this logical log. Any other (log backup) tape will be rejected. This is the reason why during log bckup upon completing a log backup tape, ontape("ontape -c" or "ontape -a") will tell you which logical logs are contained on that specific tape. Making a note of this will save you searching and trying log backup tapes during restore (where usually there's little time because everybody, your boss included, impatiently waits for the restore to be completed ...). This means that for a successful restore up to "now", you have to have all logical log backup tapes written (i.e. completed) between the backup time of the (level 0) archive that you have restored and "now". This may include a tape with salvaged logical logs. You are writing one logical log tape each day, if I understood you correctly. In that case after restoring yesterday's archive (physical restore), you will then first be asked for the logical log backup tape from yesterday. After restoring the necessary logs from that tape (ontape will choose the correct logs to restore by itself), you can then restore logs from today. You will be prompted somewhat like: "Do you have another logical log backup tape ? y/n", so that you can restore consecutive logical logs from as many log backup tapes as you want ... The keyword here is *consecutive*. There can not be a gap between logical logs, as this would make things inconsistent. Regards, Martin -- Martin Fuerderer IBM Informix Development Munich Data Management Solutions forum.subscriber@iiug.org wrote on 27.05.2004 06:29:42: > Hi, > I am using IDS 7.x on Windows NT server. I would like to know that if we > take continuous log backup on informix with the following command 'ontape > -c' on one tape during the day. > > Can you please advise that if we restored the previous days database backup > with "ontape -r" and then on top of that if we restored today's log's backup > "ontape -l", will it work and will I get the data as on now then. > > Thanks and Regards > VAIDYANATHAN KRISHNAN > (GANESH)