Restore from one server to another using ontape?
Question: can an ontape backup from a production server be restored onto a test server that has different chunk sizes/layouts, to refresh test data without the downtime of dbexport/dbimport? Answers: no — a physical restore reproduces the instance exactly, so chunks must be the same number and size; only paths and offsets can differ (rename restore, 9.40+), and you need enough total disk space. Suggested alternatives: make the test layout match production, use unload/load, onunload/onload, external tables or ER, or archecker table-level restore (noted as awkward and potentially inconsistent since no log recovery occurs), or commercial tools like Optim.
Auto-generated by DrWatson from the posts below — may be imperfect; read the full thread.
If I have 2 servers with identical architecture but different chunk sizes for
the db spaces is it possible to do an ontape backup from one to another?
Jonathon Wyza
CX & CBORD System Administrator
CX Programmer/Analyst
Administrative Computing
Bethel College
(574)-257-3381
AIM: Iamwyza
jonathon.wyza@bethelcollege.edu<mailto:jonathon.wyza@bethelcollege.edu>
==============================
SLES 11x64 & IDS 11.50.FC6
"Don't document the problem, fix it."
- Atli Björgvin Oddsson
What are your needs? Do you want a complete restore of the instance? If yes,
the question doesn't exist... You'll end with a copy of your original
instance (same dbspaces, same chunks and same size - pathnames and offsets
can be changed if you're using 9.40+)
If you're thinking about partially moving data from one instance to the
other you can't do that by restoring... You need other tools (unload, load,
onunload/onload, external tables, ER...)
Hope this helps, but I have the feeling I did not understand your
requirements....
Regards.
On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 6:25 PM, Wyza, Jonathon <wyzaj@bethelcollege.edu>wrote:
> If I have 2 servers with identical architecture but different chunk sizes
> for
> the db spaces is it possible to do an ontape backup from one to another?
>
> Jonathon Wyza
> CX & CBORD System Administrator
> CX Programmer/Analyst
> Administrative Computing
> Bethel College
> (574)-257-3381
> AIM: Iamwyza
> jonathon.wyza@bethelcollege.edu<mailto:jonathon.wyza@bethelcollege.edu>
> ==============================
> SLES 11x64 & IDS 11.50.FC6
>
> "Don't document the problem, fix it."
> - Atli Björgvin Oddsson
>
>
>
>
*******************************************************************************
> Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum.
>
>
--
Fernando Nunes
Portugal
http://informix-technology.blogspot.com
My email works... but I don't check it frequently...
--00163630f4bbb5d8d4048e952e14
Basically I have a test system that I'd like to keep up to date periodically
from my live system, but It doesn't have the same total space that the live
system does. It has enough to hold the data as it stands now, but the chunk
layouts and sizes are completely different than on live. In the past I've used
dbexport/dbimport to refresh the box but I'm not a fan of having to take my
live database down for an hour or more to do the dump.
Or do I just need to reconfigure my test box to have identical chunk/disk
layouts to do this?
Jonathon Wyza
CX & CBORD System Administrator
CX Programmer/Analyst
Administrative Computing
Bethel College
(574)-257-3381
AIM: Iamwyza
jonathon.wyza@bethelcollege.edu
==============================
SLES 11x64 & IDS 11.50.FC6
"Don't document the problem, fix it."
- Atli Björgvin Oddsson
-----Original Message-----
From: ids-bounces@iiug.org [mailto:ids-bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf Of Fernando
Nunes
Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2010 1:35 PM
To: ids@iiug.org
Subject: Re: Restore from one server to another using o.... [21043]
What are your needs? Do you want a complete restore of the instance? If yes,
the question doesn't exist... You'll end with a copy of your original instance
(same dbspaces, same chunks and same size - pathnames and offsets can be
changed if you're using 9.40+)
If you're thinking about partially moving data from one instance to the other
you can't do that by restoring... You need other tools (unload, load,
onunload/onload, external tables, ER...)
Hope this helps, but I have the feeling I did not understand your
requirements....
Regards.
On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 6:25 PM, Wyza, Jonathon
<wyzaj@bethelcollege.edu>wrote:
> If I have 2 servers with identical architecture but different chunk
> sizes for the db spaces is it possible to do an ontape backup from one
> to another?
>
> Jonathon Wyza
> CX & CBORD System Administrator
> CX Programmer/Analyst
> Administrative Computing
> Bethel College
> (574)-257-3381
> AIM: Iamwyza
> jonathon.wyza@bethelcollege.edu<mailto:jonathon.wyza@bethelcollege.edu
> >
> ==============================
> SLES 11x64 & IDS 11.50.FC6
>
> "Don't document the problem, fix it."
> - Atli Björgvin Oddsson
>
>
>
>
*******************************************************************************
> Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum.
>
>
--
Fernando Nunes
Portugal
http://informix-technology.blogspot.com
My email works... but I don't check it frequently...
--00163630f4bbb5d8d4048e952e14
*******************************************************************************
Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum.
On 24 August 2010 18:25, Wyza, Jonathon <wyzaj@bethelcollege.edu> wrote:
> If I have 2 servers with identical architecture but different chunk sizes for
> the db spaces is it possible to do an ontape backup from one to another?
>
> Jonathon Wyza
> CX & CBORD System Administrator
> CX Programmer/Analyst
> Administrative Computing
> Bethel College
> (574)-257-3381
> AIM: Iamwyza
> jonathon.wyza@bethelcollege.edu<mailto:jonathon.wyza@bethelcollege.edu>
> ==============================
> SLES 11x64 & IDS 11.50.FC6
>
> "Don't document the problem, fix it."
> - Atli Björgvin Oddsson
>
>
>
*******************************************************************************
> Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum.
>
>
Jonathon
No. When using ontape (or onbar) to restore, the chunks must be the same size
as the originals, and have the same fully pathed name unless your are doing a
rename restore.
The reasoning is that archive extracts the pages from the instance and has no
idea of the underlying data structures, it just a 4k (2k) of data with
an indicator as
to where in the chunk it should be located, obviously it therefore
will need to be
restrored to the same place.
Keith
For ontape to restore yes, you need the same layout. Paths and offsets can
change.
Theoretically you could use table level restore (if your version is 10+).
This allows you to extract a table (or more) from the archive and INSERT it
anywhere.
This would avoid the stop of the production database to get the export. But
it has several problems:
1- You'd have to create a very large script to command the archecker
utility. In that you'd need to specify all your tables schema and the SELECT
* ... INSERT INTO... instructions. That script would have to be updated to
maintain it up to date with any DDL changes in production
2-The biggest problem: The backup image is not a consistent snapshot of
data. It will be AFTER the recovery process that happens at the end of the
restore. But with this method, there will be no recovery, so any "in
progress" transaction would mean inconsistent data and you'd have problems
with integrity constraints etc.
So, the easiest way would be to keep the layouts in synch... If you have the
space and you have no problem in copying real data to that server (security
and data privacy issues come to mind....) that this would be the easiest way
to go.
IBM (Optim) and maybe others sell software to extract consistent data from
production servers to development/test servers. Typically they can mask the
data. Naturally these cost money....
Regards.
On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 6:49 PM, Wyza, Jonathon <wyzaj@bethelcollege.edu>wrote:
> Basically I have a test system that I'd like to keep up to date
> periodically
> from my live system, but It doesn't have the same total space that the live
> system does. It has enough to hold the data as it stands now, but the chunk
> layouts and sizes are completely different than on live. In the past I've
> used
> dbexport/dbimport to refresh the box but I'm not a fan of having to take my
> live database down for an hour or more to do the dump.
>
> Or do I just need to reconfigure my test box to have identical chunk/disk
> layouts to do this?
>
> Jonathon Wyza
> CX & CBORD System Administrator
> CX Programmer/Analyst
> Administrative Computing
> Bethel College
> (574)-257-3381
> AIM: Iamwyza
> jonathon.wyza@bethelcollege.edu
> ==============================
> SLES 11x64 & IDS 11.50.FC6
>
> "Don't document the problem, fix it."
> - Atli Björgvin Oddsson
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ids-bounces@iiug.org [mailto:ids-bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf Of
> Fernando
> Nunes
> Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2010 1:35 PM
> To: ids@iiug.org
> Subject: Re: Restore from one server to another using o.... [21043]
>
> What are your needs? Do you want a complete restore of the instance? If
> yes,
> the question doesn't exist... You'll end with a copy of your original
> instance
> (same dbspaces, same chunks and same size - pathnames and offsets can be
> changed if you're using 9.40+)
>
> If you're thinking about partially moving data from one instance to the
> other
> you can't do that by restoring... You need other tools (unload, load,
> onunload/onload, external tables, ER...)
>
> Hope this helps, but I have the feeling I did not understand your
> requirements....
> Regards.
>
> On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 6:25 PM, Wyza, Jonathon
> <wyzaj@bethelcollege.edu>wrote:
>
> > If I have 2 servers with identical architecture but different chunk
> > sizes for the db spaces is it possible to do an ontape backup from one
> > to another?
> >
> > Jonathon Wyza
> > CX & CBORD System Administrator
> > CX Programmer/Analyst
> > Administrative Computing
> > Bethel College
> > (574)-257-3381
> > AIM: Iamwyza
> > jonathon.wyza@bethelcollege.edu<mailto:jonathon.wyza@bethelcollege.edu
> > >
> > ==============================
> > SLES 11x64 & IDS 11.50.FC6
> >
> > "Don't document the problem, fix it."
> > - Atli Björgvin Oddsson
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
*******************************************************************************
> > Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum.
> >
> >
>
> --
> Fernando Nunes
> Portugal
>
> http://informix-technology.blogspot.com
> My email works... but I don't check it frequently...
>
> --00163630f4bbb5d8d4048e952e14
>
>
>
>
*******************************************************************************
> Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum.
>
>
>
>
*******************************************************************************
> Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum.
>
>
--
Fernando Nunes
Portugal
http://informix-technology.blogspot.com
My email works... but I don't check it frequently...
--0015175cd13e86012d048e958efd
With ontape, you can do a "restore with rename" AS LONG AS:
- by "chunk sizes" you are referring to available disk space
- you have enough available disk space to put ALL the chunks from production
- you don't care that the layout of chunks is not the same as production
(ie: you could restore rootspace and tempspaces to the same rawdisk /
filesystem with renaming and offsets )
Bob
----- Original Message -----
From: "Keith Simmons" <smiley73@googlemail.com>
To: ids@iiug.org
Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2010 2:04:33 PM
Subject: Re: Restore from one server to another using o.... [21047]
On 24 August 2010 18:25, Wyza, Jonathon <wyzaj@bethelcollege.edu> wrote:
> If I have 2 servers with identical architecture but different chunk sizes
for
> the db spaces is it possible to do an ontape backup from one to another?
>
> Jonathon Wyza
> CX & CBORD System Administrator
> CX Programmer/Analyst
> Administrative Computing
> Bethel College
> (574)-257-3381
> AIM: Iamwyza
> jonathon.wyza@bethelcollege.edu<mailto:jonathon.wyza@bethelcollege.edu>
> ==============================
> SLES 11x64 & IDS 11.50.FC6
>
> "Don't document the problem, fix it."
> - Atli Bjrgvin Oddsson
>
>
>
*******************************************************************************
> Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum.
>
>
Jonathon
No. When using ontape (or onbar) to restore, the chunks must be the same size
as the originals, and have the same fully pathed name unless your are doing a
rename restore.
The reasoning is that archive extracts the pages from the instance and has no
idea of the underlying data structures, it just a 4k (2k) of data with
an indicator as
to where in the chunk it should be located, obviously it therefore
will need to be
restrored to the same place.
Keith
*******************************************************************************
Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum.