Is it possible to perform onbar backup/restore between heterogeneous platforms?
SangGyu Jeong asked whether an onbar backup from Informix 11.5 on HP-UX could be restored on AIX or Solaris. Eric Vercelletto and Paul Watson said no, since binaries and versions must match; the data could instead be moved with ER. Paul and Eric suggested archecker to extract tables from the archive. Benjamin Thompson noted minor-version restores sometimes work. SangGyu planned to try archecker on a test server.
Auto-generated by Claude from the posts below — may be imperfect; read the full thread.
I would like to know if it is possible to restore to Solaris or AIX with an onbar backup taken on Informix in an HP-UX environment.
I answered my customer that it was impossible... Is it possible?
The Informix version is 11.5 and the backup software is EMC Networker.
In the document below, there is an explanation that Commvault can be used to perform Cross Platform/Cross Server Restore.
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/performing-cross-platformcross-server-restore-using-commvault
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SangGyu Jeong
Software Engineer
Infrasoft
Seoul Korea, Republic of
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#Informix
Simple answer : NO WAY ! Must be same binary informix distribution and same Informix version including patch. If they upgrade the 11.50 to 11.70 or above, can be achieved thru ER Cheers ERic
No
There is no need to upgrade the 11.5 to use ER
Thanks Paul. ------------------------------ SangGyu Jeong Software Engineer Infrasoft Seoul Korea, Republic of ------------------------------
Thanks Eric, My customer is considering transitioning to AIX or Solaris because HP-UX will end support in 2025. Sadly, there are no plans to invest in Informix. ------------------------------ SangGyu Jeong Software Engineer Infrasoft Seoul Korea, Republic of ------------------------------
If they have the install for aix/solaris (or Linux) then ER the data over - subject to the ER limitations of 11.5 Cheers Paul Paul Watson Oninit LLC +1-913-387-7529 www.oninit.com Oninit® is a registered trademark of Oninit LLC
Have you thought about using archecker to access the tables. Again not sure of limitations of archecker in 11.50 Cheers Paul Paul Watson Oninit LLC +1-913-387-7529 www.oninit.com Oninit® is a registered trademark of Oninit LLC
As Paul said, check archecker. 11.50 probably allows to extract data from the archive. I remember this functionality was not in 10 not 11.10 and was introduced in 11.50 XXX ? Syntax is archecker -b -.......
I am not sure this is strictly true although it may be all that is officially supported.
Certainly the platform, major version, disk layout etc. must be the same, but I have in the past restored ontape/onbar to a different patch, at least once to get around a bug in 'ontape' (was some time ago). Not every patch results in changes to the underlying storage. I think 'onmode -b' gives an idea of what is possible. To be clear I am not recommending doing this; it would be preferable to restore to the exact same patch and then upgrade is that is what you want to do.
Ben.
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Benjamin Thompson
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I think it has got tighter, but I have restored with minor version differences in the past.
Using archecker is a great idea. I'll try it on the test server. ------------------------------ SangGyu Jeong Software Engineer Infrasoft Seoul Korea, Republic of ------------------------------