external restore 9.40.FC8X3

Dear list, we have an older but important SAP/Informix 9.40.FC8X3 installation here. An update of informix is not an option. Up to now we used onbar and networker to save the servers and logical logs. Because of changes in the infrastructure we have to shut down the networker server and will not have an XBSA-compatible backup system any more. Therefore we cannot use onbar in future. We plan to do external backups only. No Level 0 backups. The external backups are snapshots of the particular database-storage which is located in central SAN-Storage system. While creating a snapshots the databaseserver is brought in consistency mode by command onmode -c block. The logical logs are backuped by ontape to disk. We do this with 11.70 yet and tested the recover successfully. ontape in Version 9.40 cannot produce single logfile-backups: Each command ontape -a overwrites the same file. So we created a procedure to rename the backup file immediately after the backup. In version 9.40 ontape has no parameter -p -e. An external restore seems not possible. And after the long preamble is this the question: Is there any way to do external restores with ontape and version 9.40.FC8X3? TIA Reinhard.

Wellllll. Check out the v9.40 Backup and Restore Guide. It says that this is doable, however, you need to use onbar to start up the engine in 'restore' mode with "onbar -r -e" after performing the external restore of the chunks then restore logical logs. The manual only discusses using "onbar -b -l -s". I don't know if you can use onbar -r -e to start the engine without a storage manager configured, or if you could then use ontape -l to restore the logical logs. I've never tried to do this. Hmm,see if your ontape has the -e option, if so, you should be able to use use ontape to start up the engine after the restore. I would call IBM and ask them if no IBMers chime in to verify if this will work... or just give it a try on a test machine. Art Art S. Kagel, Principal Consultant Advanced DataTools (www.advancedatatools.com) Blog: http://informix-myview.blogspot.com/ Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that my own opinions are my own opinions and do not reflect on the IIUG, nor any other organization with which I am associated either explicitly, implicitly, or by inference. Neither do those opinions reflect those of other individuals affiliated with any entity with which I am affiliated nor those of the entities themselves. On Tue, Jan 14, 2014 at 6:43 AM, Habichtsberg, Reinhard < RHabichtsberg@arz-emmendingen.de> wrote: > Dear list, > > we have an older but important SAP/Informix 9.40.FC8X3 installation > here. An update of informix is not an option. > > Up to now we used onbar and networker to save the servers and logical > logs. Because of changes in the infrastructure we have to shut down the > networker server and will not have an XBSA-compatible backup system any > more. Therefore we cannot use onbar in future. > > We plan to do external backups only. No Level 0 backups. The external > backups are snapshots of the particular database-storage which is > located in central SAN-Storage system. While creating a snapshots the > databaseserver is brought in consistency mode by command onmode -c > block. The logical logs are backuped by ontape to disk. > > We do this with 11.70 yet and tested the recover successfully. > > ontape in Version 9.40 cannot produce single logfile-backups: Each > command ontape -a overwrites the same file. So we created a procedure to > rename the backup file immediately after the backup. > > In version 9.40 ontape has no parameter -p -e. An external restore seems > not possible. And after the long preamble is this the question: > > Is there any way to do external restores with ontape and version > 9.40.FC8X3? > > TIA > > Reinhard. > > > > ******************************************************************************* > Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum. > > --001a11341542f81ec204efece139

Reinhard, The answer to your question is going to be that you cannot mix onbar level 0 with logical logs backed up using ontape. This IDS version should have the built in ISM (Informix Storage Manager)...so you could backup the logs to disk using onbar/ISM. Mark

sorry, I misread your question. I guess you would have to call IBM to see where they introduced ontape external restore option. It may have been in later Family 9 version. Mark

Thank you for your answers. We did some sound tests. And the good message is: It works both with 11.70.FC and 9.40.FC8X3. We made external backups with several means (file copy, dd of raw devices) and Logical Log Backups with ontape. We configured BAR_BSALIB_PATH $INFORMIXDIR/lib/libbsa.so in onconfig, that is ism. The content of $INFORMIXDIR/etc/sm_version should be: 1|1.0.1|ism|ISM.2.20.UC1.114| The file $INFORMIXDIR/etc/ixbar.servernumber must exist. LTAPEDEV has to be file in 9.40 and a directory in 11.70 TAPEDEV can be /dev/null After we destroyed and recovered the chunks of the test-instance we restored the informix server with the following commands: - onbar -r -p -e. The server starts into the recovery mode. - ontape -l. With 9.40 ontape asks for the logical logs. It expects the logical logs in the file which is found in LTAPEDEV in onconfig. Multiple logical log-backup-files have to be copied to this file one by one. ontape pauses and asks if you want to restore yet another logical log. FYI Reinhard > -----Original Message----- > From: ids-bounces@iiug.org [mailto:ids-bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf Of Art > Kagel > Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2014 12:57 PM > To: ids@iiug.org > Subject: Re: external restore 9.40.FC8X3 [32213] > > Wellllll. Check out the v9.40 Backup and Restore Guide. It says that this is > doable, however, you need to use onbar to start up the engine in 'restore' mode > with "onbar -r -e" after performing the external restore of the chunks then restore > logical logs. The manual only discusses using "onbar -b -l -s". I don't know if you > can use onbar -r -e to start the engine without a storage manager configured, or if > you could then use ontape -l to restore the logical logs. I've never tried to do this. > Hmm, see if your ontape has the -e option, if so, you should be able to use use > ontape to start up the engine after the restore. I would call IBM and ask them if no > IBMers chime in to verify if this will work... or just give it a try on a test machine. > > Art > > Art S. Kagel, Principal Consultant > > Advanced DataTools (www.advancedatatools.com) > Blog: http://informix-myview.blogspot.com/ > > Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that my own opinions are my own opinions and > do not reflect on the IIUG, nor any other organization with which I am associated > either explicitly, implicitly, or by inference. Neither do those opinions reflect those > of other individuals affiliated with any entity with which I am affiliated nor those of > the entities themselves. > > On Tue, Jan 14, 2014 at 6:43 AM, Habichtsberg, Reinhard < RHabichtsberg@arz- > emmendingen.de> wrote: > > > Dear list, > > > > we have an older but important SAP/Informix 9.40.FC8X3 installation > > here. An update of informix is not an option. > > > > Up to now we used onbar and networker to save the servers and logical > > logs. Because of changes in the infrastructure we have to shut down > > the networker server and will not have an XBSA-compatible backup > > system any more. Therefore we cannot use onbar in future. > > > > We plan to do external backups only. No Level 0 backups. The external > > backups are snapshots of the particular database-storage which is > > located in central SAN-Storage system. While creating a snapshots the > > databaseserver is brought in consistency mode by command onmode -c > > block. The logical logs are backuped by ontape to disk. > > > > We do this with 11.70 yet and tested the recover successfully. > > > > ontape in Version 9.40 cannot produce single logfile-backups: Each > > command ontape -a overwrites the same file. So we created a procedure > > to rename the backup file immediately after the backup. > > > > In version 9.40 ontape has no parameter -p -e. An external restore > > seems not possible. And after the long preamble is this the question: > > > > Is there any way to do external restores with ontape and version > > 9.40.FC8X3? > > > > TIA > > > > Reinhard. > > > > > > > > > ************************************************************************ ******* > > Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum. > > > > > > --001a11341542f81ec204efece139 > > > ************************************************************************ ******* > Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum.