fbackup versus OmniBack II

[Vince Arends]

Background information - We are running HP-UX 11.0 on a K460. Using Oracle 8.0.5 database with Oracle 11.0 Financials. Tape device is HP DLT 7000 1/15. du -ks output is around 38-39Gig. Currently, I have scripts set up in cron that (1) take production Oracle down (stop concurrent managers and the database), (2) depending on the day of the week, load a DLT into the drive, (3) run fbackup of all production Oracle files, (4) put the DLT back, (5) start Oracle up. Monday through Friday nights, this process is done. It takes about 40 minutes to run. I have another set of scripts that run on Saturday morning that bring all of our Oracle databases down, load a tape from slot 15, run fbackup on all mount points (system and Oracle), and then bring Oracle up. This weekly (full, a.k.a. Disaster Recovery) backup process takes about three hours. Monday morning, an operator replaces the DLT from slot 15 with the next "Disaster Recovery" DLT, and the one removed is sent off site (we use several tapes for this rotation). There is some manual tracking of the DLTs on my part. Management purchased OmniBack when they bought the K460 and HP-UX, but I have never taken the opportunity to set it up; fbackup seemed so much simpler at the time. I have looked in the OmniBack manuals and have also seen some interesting items on the forums about Oracle and OmniBack. I have used my production backup to create (and recreate) another Oracle instance, so I feel pretty confident that the backups are working. Now to the question: Can anybody give me any good reasons why I should mess with OmniBack? Management wants to know why I'm not using something they bought. ("If it ain't broke, don't fix it." comes to mind.) Thank you for your input.

[Rick Garland]

It is a matter of personal perference as to which avenue to proceed down. Sounds like you have the backups to be rock-solid so why should there be changes. A question I would have to ask is why management did not consult you for input when designing the backup solution?

Bottom line, you have a backup plan, it has been tested and works, restores have been accomplished, the time it takes to backup is well within limits, ...everything appears to be OK.

Omniback does have more features but then that could get some people into trouble. I think some people are thinking that if a product has more bells and whistles, it must be better. But that is not true.

Management may be looking from the training aspect. Is your script easy to use and user friendly as compared to Omniback? Most of the time, I see this answer as no.

[Tim Malnati]

Is Omniback in use in other parts of the organization? If it is I can understand management's desire to use it universally where training and compatability issues are also a factor. Or is it possible that management may want Omniback more universally applied with this system acting as the prototype? Maybe some questions need to be asked and answered. There may be some political aspects to this that may be better served by moving to Omniback.

[Antoanetta Naghiu]

OmniBack has some pro and contra. You need to install it, configure it and maintain it. It has its own database that is growing... It is eating disk space espeacialy under var. Think about performance issue. In the Cel Manager box I do not have any application (except IT/O). So, if you want to use it, you have to think about performance if installing in the same box with apps, or have another box...
In the other hand, OmniBack is very fast in restoring stuff. You can enable users with different privileges... It is working well for big envirnonmet.
As it was said, you need training and you'll get a better idea and can decide by yourself.

[Tommy Brown]

Personally, I think the advantage of Omniback is the ability to have the different backups available on one media. I can put my Informix ONBAR backups and my HPUX on the same tape. Omniback can incorporate your scripts in its pre-exec and post-exec options. The cataloging helps me to rapidly locate and restore just about any file/database in a fairly short time. I think the Training was worth the money and time. I am using it on a 10.20 cell server with Informix Clients, NT40 clients and MSSQL7.0 clients, NW5.0 Client, and an Exchange client. I completely agree that the most important thing is to have a consistent and verifiable backup and recovery plan regardless of the Backup software utilized.
Tommy

[Rita C Workman]

Well I use OmniBack. I have used fbackup. And I can assure you doing a restore off a tape created by means of OmniBack is considerably easier than trying it on fbackup. And the whole purpose of a backup...is restore what you must asap.
Omniback takes a little to set it up the first time...but if I can do it, without any training on it, than anyone can.

I suppose the only other thing I could say is....'if the man bought it - he meant to have it used'. And then there's the famous ...'...the person who signs the check, makes the rules...'
Regards,

[Dave Wherry]

I think everyone has covered this pretty well. I think the highlights were:
Omniback is faster. Has much better reporting and cataloging capabilities. You've made it past the biggest hurdle, your company already spent the money. I recoment using it.
When you look at it, keep it simple. Let Omniback do it's job. I've been in 2 shops where Omniback was implemented with many of the manual processes that were previously in use. Both shops set up way too many pools and do way to much tape handling. As others said, get thr training and then let Omniback do the work.
Also, Rick, thanks for the chuckle of the week. Asking why management did not ask the front line people what they wanted or needed. That cracked me up. Your technical answers are great and now you're adding jokes. I love it.