Backupedge

Hello everyone, We are running IDS 9.2 on a SCO Server. A reseller today mentioned a software backup product called BackupEdge, from Microlite(?) He tells me that it will create an exact image of the entire System, which can then be used to restore to a new Server in the event of a disaster - providing the hardware setup is "very similar" INCLUDING all of Informix, even though we are running IDS on uncooked partitions. Can anyone confirm this? Our current backup strategy is to tape, the Informix part is ontape. I would be very interested if this product could be used to give the business a System identical to the one on the "lost" Server within a few hours of obtaining a replacement Server. It sounds too good to be true. Regards, Malcolm Garbett

Hi, The live database is around 400 MB. Others, training and archives, about the same again. Certainly the whole lot is below 2GB. Our disaster recovery plan, after we obtained a new box, would be to install the OS, then Informix, then our ERP app and then restore from tapes. If what I was told today is accurate, it's very appealing to have an affordable (for an SME) option where we could boot from an image disk that puts everything back as it was, then just run ontape -r to get back to the last archive. Regards, Malcolm -----Original Message----- From: Sushil Shirodkar [SMTP:sushilps@hotmail.com] Sent: 15 May 2003 14:10 To: malcolm.g@newall.co.uk Subject: Re: Backupedge [1152] Hi Malcolm, How big is your database, and how much time it will take to backup & RESTORE. Sushil... >From: "Malcolm Gar...." <malcolm.g@newall.co.uk> >To: ids@iiug.org >Subject: Backupedge [1152] Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 08:38:36 -0400 (EDT) >Received: from ace.iiug.org ([216.177.38.212]) by mc4-f10.law16.hotmail.com >with Microsoft SMTPSVC(5.0.2195.5600); Thu, 15 May 2003 05:45:30 -0700 >Received: from ace.iiug.org (localhost [127.0.0.1])by ace.iiug.org >(8.12.8p1/8.12.8) with ESMTP id h4FCjbHu029420;Thu, 15 May 2003 08:45:41 >-0400 (EDT) >Received: (from nobody@localhost)by ace.iiug.org (8.12.8p1/8.12.8/Submit) >id h4FCcaia029078;Thu, 15 May 2003 08:38:36 -0400 (EDT) >X-Message-Info: vAu4ZEtdRigLaEiTQQBlDPU44G8LMD9u >Message-Id: <200305151238.h4FCcaia029078@ace.iiug.org> >Apparently-To: forum.subscriber@iiug.org >Sender: forum.subscriber@iiug.org >Precedence: bulk >Return-Path: nobody@ace.iiug.org >X-OriginalArrivalTime: 15 May 2003 12:45:31.0616 (UTC) >FILETIME=[DEE62600:01C31ADF] > >Hello everyone, > >We are running IDS 9.2 on a SCO Server. > >A reseller today mentioned a software backup product called BackupEdge, >from >Microlite(?) > >He tells me that it will create an exact image of the entire System, which >can then be used to restore to a new Server in the event of a disaster - >providing the hardware setup is "very similar" INCLUDING all of Informix, >even though we are running IDS on uncooked partitions. > >Can anyone confirm this? > >Our current backup strategy is to tape, the Informix part is ontape. > >I would be very interested if this product could be used to give the >business a System identical to the one on the "lost" Server within a few >hours of obtaining a replacement Server. > >It sounds too good to be true. > >Regards, >Malcolm Garbett > _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus

Hi, this "Backupedge" software from Microlite then doesn't backup and restore raw devices, right ? There's one case with IDS, where you don't need to do backup/restore using our tools (ontape/ON-Bar) : - bring down the server completely (onmode -yuk), - then do a backup of all the chunks (be they cooked files or raw devices) while the server is down, - copy everything else (i.e. content of $INFORMIXDIR, config files, sqlhosts, etc.) - restore all this stuff onto the new machine (that has the same hostname ...) in exactly the way as it was on the old machine (especially chunk path names, or use links that have the same absolute name as the old chunk paths ...), Then you should be able to bring up the IDS Server on the new machine simply by doing "oninit". In this case, since the server was down during the backup, nothing has changed as far as the server is concerned. In fact it will not even "know" that it is now running on a new hardware ... Basically it will be an "External Backup and Restore" ... [ The backup tools are mandatory for __on-line__ archives, where users are connected and manipulate data __while__ the archive is ongoing. For this to restore to a consistent (logical) state of data you need the on-line backup tools, logical logs, physical and logical restore and recovery, etc. ] BTW: to backup a raw device with a system utility, you could use "dd" with a command like : dd if=<your raw device> bs=2048 \\\\ count=<combined size of all your chunks on this raw device including gaps between chunks> and pipe the output somewhere (tar, tape device, compress, ...). Restore : pipe the output from somewhere (tar, tape device, uncompress, ...) to "dd" with a command like : dd of=<your new raw device> bs=2048 Regards, Martin -- Martin Fuerderer IBM Informix Development Munich Data Management Solutions "Malcolm Gar...." <malcolm.g@newall.co.uk> Sent by: forum.subscriber@iiug.org 15.05.2003 15:29 To: ids@iiug.org cc: Subject: RE: Backupedge [1153] Hi, The live database is around 400 MB. Others, training and archives, about the same again. Certainly the whole lot is below 2GB. Our disaster recovery plan, after we obtained a new box, would be to install the OS, then Informix, then our ERP app and then restore from tapes. If what I was told today is accurate, it's very appealing to have an affordable (for an SME) option where we could boot from an image disk that puts everything back as it was, then just run ontape -r to get back to the last archive. Regards, Malcolm -----Original Message----- From: Sushil Shirodkar [SMTP:sushilps@hotmail.com] Sent: 15 May 2003 14:10 To: malcolm.g@newall.co.uk Subject: Re: Backupedge [1152] Hi Malcolm, How big is your database, and how much time it will take to backup & RESTORE. Sushil... >From: "Malcolm Gar...." <malcolm.g@newall.co.uk> >To: ids@iiug.org >Subject: Backupedge [1152] Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 08:38:36 -0400 (EDT) >Received: from ace.iiug.org ([216.177.38.212]) by mc4-f10.law16.hotmail.com >with Microsoft SMTPSVC(5.0.2195.5600); Thu, 15 May 2003 05:45:30 -0700 >Received: from ace.iiug.org (localhost [127.0.0.1])by ace.iiug.org >(8.12.8p1/8.12.8) with ESMTP id h4FCjbHu029420;Thu, 15 May 2003 08:45:41 >-0400 (EDT) >Received: (from nobody@localhost)by ace.iiug.org (8.12.8p1/8.12.8/Submit) >id h4FCcaia029078;Thu, 15 May 2003 08:38:36 -0400 (EDT) >X-Message-Info: vAu4ZEtdRigLaEiTQQBlDPU44G8LMD9u >Message-Id: <200305151238.h4FCcaia029078@ace.iiug.org> >Apparently-To: forum.subscriber@iiug.org >Sender: forum.subscriber@iiug.org >Precedence: bulk >Return-Path: nobody@ace.iiug.org >X-OriginalArrivalTime: 15 May 2003 12:45:31.0616 (UTC) >FILETIME=[DEE62600:01C31ADF] > >Hello everyone, > >We are running IDS 9.2 on a SCO Server. > >A reseller today mentioned a software backup product called BackupEdge, >from >Microlite(?) > >He tells me that it will create an exact image of the entire System, which >can then be used to restore to a new Server in the event of a disaster - >providing the hardware setup is "very similar" INCLUDING all of Informix, >even though we are running IDS on uncooked partitions. > >Can anyone confirm this? > >Our current backup strategy is to tape, the Informix part is ontape. > >I would be very interested if this product could be used to give the >business a System identical to the one on the "lost" Server within a few >hours of obtaining a replacement Server. > >It sounds too good to be true. > >Regards, >Malcolm Garbett > _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus