Setting the ontape Configuration Parameters

The ontape utility uses six parameters in the ONCONFIG file to create storage-space and logical-log backups. The ONCONFIG file is located in the $INFORMIXDIR/etc directory. You specify that file in the ONCONFIG environment variable. For a description of the ONCONFIG environment variable and instructions on how to set it, see the IBM Informix: Guide to SQL Reference.

The first set of ONCONFIG parameters specifies the characteristics of the tape device and tapes for storage-space backups; the second set specifies the characteristics of the tape device and tapes for logical-log backups.

The following list shows backup tape devices and their associated tape parameters.

TAPEDEV

is the absolute pathname of the tape device used for storage-space backups. This is the destination where ontape will write storage space data during an archive and the source from which ontape will read data during a restore.

To configure ontape to use stdio, set TAPEDEV to STDIO.

TAPEBLK

is the block size of the tapes used for storage-space backups, in kilobytes.

TAPESIZE

is the size of the tapes used for storage-space backups, in kilobytes.

The following list shows the logical-log tape devices and their associated tape parameters.

LTAPEDEV

is the logical-log tape device.

LTAPEBLK

is the block size of tapes used for logical-log backups, in kilobytes.

LTAPESIZE

is the size of tapes used for logical-log backups, in kilobytes.

The following sections contain information about how to set the tape-device, tape-block-size, and tape-size parameters for both storage-space and logical-log backups.