Informix - Different onbar backup and restore dbs order

[Rainer von Bongartz]

Sorry but my last post is not correct.

I've read it again and this are the differences:

The main difference between a whole backup (onbar -b -w) and a
parellel backup (onbar -b -L 0) is that a whole backup doesn't need logical log information to restore (it includes it in the backup)

Regards
Rainer

[Nick Wickens]

Informix version 7.31

onbar worker threads not really an issue if not doing parallel backups.

We like whole system backups because -

(1) Reduces number of tapes required for recoveries.

(2) We dont have to send log tapes offsite every morning for DR purposes.

(3) We have never been 100% confident in recoveries that involve log tapes.

(4) Our system day allows for a 30 minute window in processing at which point we do the backup. We would always want to get back to that point in time in a recovery situation for operational reasons and log tape recoveries are therefore not required. We only do log backups anyway to keep Informix and onbar happy !.

At the end of the day Informix whole system backup is a valid option but unless I have got something wrong with the setup its a very badly conceived process as in the main data should go on the tape in the same order it is going to come off to achieve best performance -

Unless you know different ...?

[Nick Wickens]

Informix/IBM have now got back to us and stated that, Yes this does appear to be a problem with onbar and they are now investigating.

Still open to any other work around solutions other than not doing whole system backups.

[Michael Tully]

Nick,

Have you looked into actually upgrading your Informix version up to 9.xxxx ? I am quite sure that we backup at least one 120Gb database daily onto a single tape (DLT7000) using omniback 4.0/onbar. I'll check tomorrow morning my time if you wish, 14 hours from now....

Regards
Michael
"When I have trouble spelling, it's called fat finger syndrome."

[Nick Wickens]

Hi Michael

In the process of testing Informix 9 with our aps at this very time.

My Board have just purchased me some nice replacement rp7410's so we are upgrading Informix and HP-UX to 11i at the same time.

Also gives me a chance to get Ominback 3.5 up to Dataprotect 5.

New Toys to play with :@)