OnTape to Tape and Disk

O/S AIX 5.3 Engine IDS 9.4 FC6 We currently use a very simple (but highly effective) archive mechanism, ontape -L 0 every night (approx 1.25 hrs) and ontape -c (to a different tape drive) running continuously from a dedicated terminal. The log tape is changed daily at 10:00 and sent off-site with the archive tape. This works for us and prvodes an easily understood and tested restore mechanism both to the same machine or off-site. Management have noted that the log tape is on-site and 'vulnerable' to fire, flood and articulated lorries (ground floor server room !) whilst it is receiving log files. I have a second server (also AIX) off-site at the end of a wide pipe and would like to ship the log files there as they fill (using any well documented log_full.sh script) however, I want also to retain the convenience of having the logs on tape to maintain the existing restore mechanism. Is it possible to archive completed log files to BOTH tape and disk?? Keith

Keith Simmons wrote: > O/S AIX 5.3 > Engine IDS 9.4 FC6 > We currently use a very simple (but highly effective) archive > mechanism, ontape -L 0 every night (approx 1.25 hrs) and ontape -c (to > a different tape drive) running continuously from a dedicated > terminal. The log tape is changed daily at 10:00 and sent off-site > with the archive tape. > This works for us and prvodes an easily understood and tested restore > mechanism both to the same machine or off-site. > Management have noted that the log tape is on-site and 'vulnerable' to > fire, flood and articulated lorries (ground floor server room !) > whilst it is receiving log files. > I have a second server (also AIX) off-site at the end of a wide pipe > and would like to ship the log files there as they fill (using any > well documented log_full.sh script) however, I want also to retain the > convenience of having the logs on tape to maintain the existing > restore mechanism. > Is it possible to archive completed log files to BOTH tape and disk?? You can change to using the ALARMPROGRAM to archive logical logs to disk and immediately rcp the file to the remote machine where a polling script can archive it to tape. We do something similar: We use my eventalarm.c program (utils3_ak) in ALARMPROGRAM. Hourly a cron sweeps any new logical log archive files it finds (using a touch file to determine what's new) to a sister machine in our back up data center offsite. At the end of the day the system archives copy all those files to tape on both machines. Weekly another cron deletes logical log backups that are older than 7 days. This results in every logical log file being in two places within an hour or less of the log completing. By the end of the day they are also on two daily backup tapes and by the time the next level 0 archive it taken they're on several and possibly the weekly archive as well. Art S. Kagel

Keith Simmons wrote: > O/S AIX 5.3 > Engine IDS 9.4 FC6 > We currently use a very simple (but highly effective) archive > mechanism, ontape -L 0 every night (approx 1.25 hrs) and ontape -c (to > a different tape drive) running continuously from a dedicated > terminal. The log tape is changed daily at 10:00 and sent off-site > with the archive tape. > This works for us and prvodes an easily understood and tested restore > mechanism both to the same machine or off-site. > Management have noted that the log tape is on-site and 'vulnerable' to > fire, flood and articulated lorries (ground floor server room !) > whilst it is receiving log files. > I have a second server (also AIX) off-site at the end of a wide pipe > and would like to ship the log files there as they fill (using any > well documented log_full.sh script) however, I want also to retain the > convenience of having the logs on tape to maintain the existing > restore mechanism. > Is it possible to archive completed log files to BOTH tape and disk?? You can change to using the ALARMPROGRAM to archive logical logs to disk and immediately rcp the file to the remote machine where a polling script can archive it to tape. We do something similar: We use my eventalarm.c program (utils3_ak) in ALARMPROGRAM. Hourly a cron sweeps any new logical log archive files it finds (using a touch file to determine what's new) to a sister machine in our back up data center offsite. At the end of the day the system archives copy all those files to tape on both machines. Weekly another cron deletes logical log backups that are older than 7 days. This results in every logical log file being in two places within an hour or less of the log completing. By the end of the day they are also on two daily backup tapes and by the time the next level 0 archive it taken they're on several and possibly the weekly archive as well. Art S. Kagel

"Keith Simmons" <smiley73@googlemail.com> wrote in message news:mailman.102.1160475810.29455.informix-list@iiug.org... > O/S AIX 5.3 > Engine IDS 9.4 FC6 > We currently use a very simple (but highly effective) archive > mechanism, ontape -L 0 every night (approx 1.25 hrs) and ontape -c (to > a different tape drive) running continuously from a dedicated > terminal. The log tape is changed daily at 10:00 and sent off-site > with the archive tape. > This works for us and prvodes an easily understood and tested restore > mechanism both to the same machine or off-site. > Management have noted that the log tape is on-site and 'vulnerable' to > fire, flood and articulated lorries (ground floor server room !) > whilst it is receiving log files. > I have a second server (also AIX) off-site at the end of a wide pipe > and would like to ship the log files there as they fill (using any > well documented log_full.sh script) however, I want also to retain the > convenience of having the logs on tape to maintain the existing > restore mechanism. > Is it possible to archive completed log files to BOTH tape and disk?? If you're prepared to backup logs to disks for a short while then spool them to tape you can script something in ALARMPROGRAM to do this. You can also use ALARMPROGRAM to copy to different disk sub-systems, eg to internal disk and SAN, or to a remote system. We do this all the time and have developed some scripts to do it. rgds Neil