How to Backup Raw Devices Informix with Unix Backup???
A user on HP-UX with Informix 7.23 and Baan wanted to back up raw-device chunks to tape alongside his nightly Unix backup, and asked whether his schedule was sound. Replies suggested shutting the instance down (onmode -ky) and copying each chunk with dd, checking dd's exit status, then oninit — while noting dd copies whole chunks so ontape is faster when dbspaces aren't full. Others stressed that dd is unsupported (only ontape, OnArchive and ON-Bar are), suggesting ON-Bar with per-dbspace level-0 backups, or ON-Bar/ISM backing up to disk which the Unix backup then picks up, and advised testing restores. No single conclusion was agreed; the poster's follow-up about piping ontape through a named pipe went unanswered.
Auto-generated by DrWatson from the posts below — may be imperfect; read the full thread.
Hello,
In our development center we have a HP-UX host with two Baan ERP systems and
informix 7.23.UC6. We are currently backing up this host in the following way:
01:00 Unix Backup
08:00 Change Tape, Informix level 0 backup - ontape
Loss of informix date is not our biggest problem because it's only test data
and the Baan scripts we are developping are secure in our Unix backup. It's
not a very big problem if we lose one day work in a disaster. So i would like
to do the following:
Every Day:
00:00 Stop Baan and Informix
01:00 Unix Backup on DTL (/dev/rmt/1m)
03:00 Dump chunks on tape (/dev/rmt/1m)
b5rootdbs, plogdbs, llogdbs, b5datdbs, tempdbs, b5idxdbs
Each Friday:
Unix, level 0 backup
With this backup we are always able to get our environment back to the
previous day in case of a disaster / major problem
Is this backup procedure ok or am I missing something here?
Does anyone know how to dump the informix chuncks on tape?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Greetings,
Ditmar den Engelsen
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dengelsen@my-dejanews.com wrote:
>
> Hello,
snip
>
> Is this backup procedure ok or am I missing something here?
crash your online and test it !
> Does anyone know how to dump the informix chuncks on tape?
onmode -ky#if your online is down then :
for i in $CHUNKS
do
dd if=i bs=2k of=your_device_to_backup
#and test the exit-status of your dd !!!
done
oninit
Markus Holzbauer wrote:
>
> dengelsen@my-dejanews.com wrote:
> >
> > Hello,
> snip
> >
> > Is this backup procedure ok or am I missing something here?
>
> crash your online and test it !
>
> > Does anyone know how to dump the informix chuncks on tape?
>
> onmode -ky> #if your online is down then :
> for i in $CHUNKS
> do
> dd if=i bs=2k of=your_device_to_backup
> #and test the exit-status of your dd !!!
Note :
This works fine if the dbspaces (chunks) are full, but
if there are not full: ontape is the faster way !
> done
> oninit
Markus
Just be sure you remember that this is not a supported method to do
backups. So don't expect support if you have a problem.
Markus Holzbauer <markus.holzbauer@mch.siemens.de> wrote:
>
>
>dengelsen@my-dejanews.com wrote:
>>
>> Hello,
>snip
>>
>> Is this backup procedure ok or am I missing something here?
>
>crash your online and test it !
>
>> Does anyone know how to dump the informix chuncks on tape?
>
>onmode -ky>#if your online is down then :
>for i in $CHUNKS
>do
> dd if=i bs=2k of=your_device_to_backup
> #and test the exit-status of your dd !!!
>done
>oninit
"N.KY Guy" wrote:
>
> Just be sure you remember that this is not a supported method to do
> backups. So don't expect support if you have a problem.
>
That's correct !
This is not a supported method, but if you make it correct - it works.
Normaly people should use "ontape" or "onbar" - and not "dd" but if
people want use "dd" - Why not ?
Markus
You can use "onbar -b L 0 dbspace" to achieve the same effect as using
dd:
for dbspace in `cat dbspace_list.txt`
do
onbar -b -L 0 $dbspacedone
This works especially well with XPS, as the list is a listing of
dbslices, instead of spaces. What happens in XPS is the dbspaces
are backed up in groups according to their dbslice grouping. Very
nice.
This way you are using onbar, and allowing a supported solution.
I eagerly await table-level restore capability in onbar. I've
heard rumors this is in the works. Currently I also back-up
tables to UNIX files, then spin these files off to ADSM, to
allow for a table-level restore, which onbar and ontape do not
support.
In the future it would be nice not only to have table level restores,
but also the capability to force an overwrite of a dbspace without
having to remove the links, and bounce the engine and fool IDS into
thinking a dbspace is down in order to restore it.
Thanks,
Tim
"N.KY Guy" wrote:
>
> Just be sure you remember that this is not a supported method to do
> backups. So don't expect support if you have a problem.
>
> Markus Holzbauer <markus.holzbauer@mch.siemens.de> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >dengelsen@my-dejanews.com wrote:
> >>
> >> Hello,
> >snip
> >>
> >> Is this backup procedure ok or am I missing something here?
> >
> >crash your online and test it !
> >
> >> Does anyone know how to dump the informix chuncks on tape?
> >
> >onmode -ky> >#if your online is down then :
> >for i in $CHUNKS
> >do
> > dd if=i bs=2k of=your_device_to_backup
> > #and test the exit-status of your dd !!!
> >done
> >oninit
--
-
--
--- Tim Schaefer
---- tschaefe@mindspring.com
--- http://www.inxutil.com
--
-
Why not? OK how about losing your database and not having a way to
get it back.
He says he can lose a days worth of work not the whole instance. He
doesn't say he is willing to start over.
If he has to restore from his dd and it doesn't work he is out of
luck. At least with the other method he can call tech support and
hopefully get some help.
He might want to consider upgrading to 7.3 and then using OnBar with
Informix Storage Manager. He could backup to disk then in a supported
manner and his Unix backup could pickup the files.
Markus Holzbauer <markus.holzbauer@mch.siemens.de> wrote:
>
>
>"N.KY Guy" wrote:
>>
>> Just be sure you remember that this is not a supported method to do
>> backups. So don't expect support if you have a problem.
>>
>That's correct !
>This is not a supported method, but if you make it correct - it works.
>Normaly people should use "ontape" or "onbar" - and not "dd" but if
>people want use "dd" - Why not ?
>
>Markus
Thanks for the script.
Is it also possible to do the following:
* Unix backup: fbackup -0 -i / -f - -c fbackup.param |
dd of=<non-rewind tapedevice>
* Informix backup:
1. create named pipe /informix/direct_bk -> dd /
tar <non-rewind tapedevice>
2. modify onconfig to backup to /informix/direct_bk
3. Do: ontape -s -L 0
Thanks in advance,
Greetings Ditmar
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In article <36C1677A.7BA9A144@mch.siemens.de>,
Markus Holzbauer <markus.holzbauer@mch.siemens.de> wrote:
>
>
> Markus Holzbauer wrote:
> >
> > dengelsen@my-dejanews.com wrote:
> > >
> > > Hello,
> > snip
> > >
> > > Is this backup procedure ok or am I missing something here?
> >
> > crash your online and test it !
> >
> > > Does anyone know how to dump the informix chuncks on tape?
> >
> > onmode -ky> > #if your online is down then :
> > for i in $CHUNKS
> > do
> > dd if=i bs=2k of=your_device_to_backup
> > #and test the exit-status of your dd !!!
>
> Note :
> This works fine if the dbspaces (chunks) are full, but
> if there are not full: ontape is the faster way !
>
> > done
> > oninit>
> Markus
>
Greetings,
Ditmar den Engelsen
-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
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I don't know if BAAN is certified on 7.3 or not. If it is you could
backup using OnBar with Informix Storage Manager and backup to disk.
Once you backup to disk then you could let your Unix backup pickup the
files. Look at the SERVERS_7.3 file in the releases directory for
basic info on setting up ISM to backup to disk. Don't however use ISM
if you are using Legatto for your Unix backups.
Also, remember that OnBar, OnArchive and ontape are the only Informix
supported backup methods. Anything else and you have a problem will
result in no support.
dengelsen@my-dejanews.com wrote:
>Hello,
>
>In our development center we have a HP-UX host with two Baan ERP systems and
>informix 7.23.UC6. We are currently backing up this host in the following way:
>01:00 Unix Backup
>08:00 Change Tape, Informix level 0 backup - ontape
>
>Loss of informix date is not our biggest problem because it's only test data
>and the Baan scripts we are developping are secure in our Unix backup. It's
>not a very big problem if we lose one day work in a disaster. So i would like
>to do the following:
>
>Every Day:
>00:00 Stop Baan and Informix
>01:00 Unix Backup on DTL (/dev/rmt/1m)
>03:00 Dump chunks on tape (/dev/rmt/1m)
> b5rootdbs, plogdbs, llogdbs, b5datdbs, tempdbs, b5idxdbs
>
>Each Friday:
>Unix, level 0 backup
>
>With this backup we are always able to get our environment back to the
>previous day in case of a disaster / major problem
>
>Is this backup procedure ok or am I missing something here?
>Does anyone know how to dump the informix chuncks on tape?
>
>Any help is greatly appreciated.
>
>
>Greetings,
>
>Ditmar den Engelsen
>
>-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
>http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own