Re: DB Bob,

>>>>> "Endre" == Endre Pekarik <epekarik@ix.netcom.com> writes: Endre> Do you DB backup What are my options to do Informix nightly Endre> backups? Any pro-s on con-s to do one or the other? Endre> Thanks, Endre We do daily incremental backups to 8mm tape, and a full backup every weekend. We keep 4 incremental and 4 full backups around before reusing the tapes, so we can restore to any DAY in the last month if we need to. We replace the tapes once a year. In several years of operation we have never had a situation where this policy has not been sufficient. Further, it means we change tapes as a regular part of our monday (remove week-end full backup) and friday (remove week-long incrementals) morning rituals, so there it is not a hassle or worry about getting the tapes in or anything. The key to implementing a good backup policy lies in 3 points: 1) it must be reliable -- your backups have to run right, when they are suppossed to run, and you must make certain the data you need is actually BACKED UP. This sounds so obvious, but you'd be surprised at how often something occurs which stops this from happening. It is always important to check that your backups ran, and correct any problems immediately. Use the highest quality tapes and tape drives available. 2) it must be easy -- you won't back up your data if it involves large hassles, a lot of extra time, or other inconviniences. If all it takes is switching a tape or two, then you'll do it. No policy is worthwhile if it is not followed. Get a tape drive, or drives that will hold all the data you need, so the backups can run unattended, and you don't have to be flipping tapes all night. 3) it must be appropriate to the value of the data. If your data is invaluable to your business, then spending the money for 2-30Gig multi-tape, autochanging, super-charged, high-speed, racing-stripped, all powerfull super carrossell may not mean anything to you, but if all you are going to back up is on machine-readable bubble cards that are on file and a whole months worth can be re-read into the database in 2 hours, then it may be over-kill. Some data can be ignored for cost reasons if the cost of re-entering that data is small (no data should be left off of full-backups, however!) But if your plan is going to cost more than the cost to recover from more than your average number of data losses a year, then you are probably spending way to much money and someone in management will come down on you for it. Have fun, Dave -- David Wagle -- dave@aries.uthscsa.edu finger me for more info /\\~~~/\\ > < > ^ ^ < "For God so loved the world that he gave us samoyeds." > (_o_) < U