Re: Testing Online 5.0's tbtape backup ... How?

Negative - You can check the integrity of an archive by using Archecker -- a utility written by John Miller and Bob Weiman of INFORMIX -- It was specifically written to test the archives to see if they are running into an Archive problem that exists on certain releases given the right criteria (e.g. high volume OLTP & Hot archives and I forget the other 2 or 3 things in the mix)... Plagerizing from the instructions: " Purpose ------ The archecker is designed to validate a level 0 archive without impacting the production system, ensuring that all data required to restore a system exists on the archive tapes in the correct format. Features ------ - Checks a level 0 archive after the archive has completed - Verification need not be done on the machine hosting the Online sytem. - Minimal system resources are required, even for large archives. - Restartable at tape level. - Detects missing pages and indicates affected table(s). - Can also verify data in similar fashion to oncheck -cd. [ tbcheck -cd ] - Progress monitor " Therefore, contact your sales rep and request that (s)he get it for you -- The sooner the better. I would caution you though that unless you test a restore -- you have never experienced the true joy of running into a problem during the process and starting all over again. We run archecker weekly, and full restores on a rotational basis here. At my former location - we went to our Hot Site are ran a full Disaster Recovery test 1-2 times a year to ensure that we could do it, and that we could do it in a timely manner. napier@chem.ubc.ca on 10/28/97 02:18:16 PM Please respond to napier@chem.ubc.ca To: informix-list@rmy.emory.edu cc: (bcc: Eric Melillo/AGInc) Subject: Testing Online 5.0's tbtape backup ... How? Hi, We are using Informix Online 5.0 on an IBM RS6000 running AIX 4.1.5 and we do regular tbtape backups of the database to an 8mm backup tape (the tape drive is an IBM 7208-001). We run tbtape -s from the command line and do level 0 backups daily. We have never needed to perform a restore, and I was wondering if there is a way to check the integrity of the tape and its contents. Our dealer told us that the only way to check is to do a complete restore. Is this the only option? Regards, Duncan.