Ignite images frequency and impact.

[Adam Noble]

Hi,

I am setting up a new ignite procedure for around 50 servers. I have done this previously whereby I generated images on a weekly basis for each server. It is my belief that taking images on a weekly basis is sufficient and that when these images run they have zero to minimal impact on the server altho if possible should be ran at a quiet period in the day. Does anybody have a different view to this or any guidlines on setting up ignite procedures. Please don't post the link to the ignite documentation as I have viewed this.

Thanks

[hpuxrox]

I usually maintain atleast two copies. How you want to do this would be up to you. I primary uses ignite to bring the server up to the point to were I can recover from the tape library. ie. Omniback or Netbackup.

However, if you are running an ignite server there are other problems you might might want to consider. Like hung NFS mounts on production systems if the network goes offline while the backup is processing.

[DCE]

I do weekly ignite images as well (off peak time) to a central server. This has been deemed sufficient to meet the companies DR requirements.

I do weekly full backups to tape of the ignite server (after the ignite process), with daily incrementals. This gives me a copy on disk, and on off site tape.

[MHudec]

Generaly speaking, we usually run ignites each day, no matter if they are via tape or nfs. And we are maintaining at least two copies.

[David Nixon · Accepted solution]

The construction of an ignite client image can have a considerable impact, in terms of CPU usage: The impact is much less on the
Ignite server.
I have attached the 'sar' output recorded
when generating a network recovery image for an 18GB system disc on a single CPU system.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

I maintained a weekly Ignite image with a five tape rotation off site for each server.

I had the job run twice a week to be able to keep a copy on site and not spend money ordering tapes from off site for routine matters.

I was able to use these images to recover from bad patches and dest DR.

The tapes were expensive but the piece of mind helped me sleep.

SEP