topic Re: Backup and restore compatibility in Operating System - HP-UX

Backup and restore compatibility

Stoicho Valkov — Wed, 18 Dec 2002 09:38:12 GMT

Could you give me some information for HP servers and workstations compatibility concerning backup and restore. For example could I make backup on K-class and restore it on N-class mashine.

Re: Backup and restore compatibility

Stefan Farrelly — Wed, 18 Dec 2002 09:42:13 GMT

It depends on which backup device you are using;

eg.
1. a DDS3 tape drive on a K to a DDS3 tape drive on an N - no problems.
2. a DDS2 tape drive on a K to a DDS3 tape drive on an N - no problems.
3. a DDS3 tape drive on a K to a DDS2 tape drive on an N - wont work because the capacity of a DDS3 drive is higher than that on a DDS2 so the DDS2 drive on the N wont be able to read it.
4. a DLT4000 drive on a K to a DLT8000 drive on an N - no problems.

The backup tools you use will work from any hardware to any other (tar, fbackup, omniback etC). so that wont be a problem, only the physical drive you are using.

Re: Backup and restore compatibility

Robert Thorneycroft — Wed, 18 Dec 2002 09:48:29 GMT

It also depends what sort of backup you are refering to, if it is a full system backup you have to be very careful when it gets to things like the kernel as the N class has some different values to a K which may result in an unbootable machine on a stright restore.

If you are just talking about data you should have no problems as long as the media and backup software are supported on both machines.

ie using DLT4/7000 and fbackup should give you absolutely no problems for instance.

Regards,

Robert Thorneycroft

Re: Backup and restore compatibility

Stoicho Valkov — Wed, 18 Dec 2002 09:55:31 GMT

My question was whether the hardware platform (processors and etc.) will allowed this.

Re: Backup and restore compatibility

Yogeeraj_1 — Wed, 18 Dec 2002 09:56:50 GMT

hi,

I believe there should not be any issues related to the backup/restore primitives that you are using (fbackup, tar, cpio, etc).

However, beware that operating system binaries might not work. The Kernel is different for each server unless they are identical.

If you are thinking about a backup server that will handle the load in case of the failure of the primary server, then you should do all appropriate tests carefully.

Best regards
Yogeeraj

Re: Backup and restore compatibility

Steven E. Protter — Wed, 18 Dec 2002 14:11:58 GMT

Assuming you can read the media.

an fbackup will restore on any hardware that has the necessary software to read it. Best practice says, same version of fbackup on both boxes.

Ignite backups(make tape recovery etc) will probably work assuminig you can read the media. You're going to have a problem if the Ignite image is 32 bit and you're trying to restore to a box that only takes 64 bit. I'm not sure you can get away with that, but you can try, if Ignite doesn't undestand what it sees,it brings up an interface on the console to allow you to make configuration adjustments for differences in hardware.

Ignites problem is it uses pax and you've got a hard 2G limit on filesize.

Oracle and other databases can't be backed up with ignite or fbackup while open. Oracle calls that a fuzzy backup and you'll massive problems brining the db up after restoring a fuzzy backup. I got away with it twice, because there had been no transactions since the last db shutdown.

omniback backups are supposed to work, platform to platmform, but I am not familiar with downward compatability issues there. Certainly you can not restore an omniback 3.5 backup on a machine running 3.1

Hope this helps....