Hi,

I seek advice from the Informix Gurus in this forum.
System : HPUX11i
Informix :7.31

My ontape database (55GB) backup to tape took over 1:30hrs using DLT8000 and we need to reduce the timing with minimal $$$. The options raised are -
1. to backup to disk but restoration could be a problem
2. to add tape drive and use onbar
3. to use faster tape drive

Your advice is sought to which option is the best.

Thank in advance

Hi,

I suggest you that implemented onbar and test the traffic of network
and if posible migrate to IDS 9.4, this version reduced the times of back-ups immensely.

happy year 2004

Gustavo.

If you want a zero dollars solution, try this:

Backup the database (ontape) to disk.
At the conclusion of the backup use an operating system utility to copy the backup file to tape.

Now you have both the disk copy of the backup for a speedy restore and a tape copy in case of total disk failure.

Many large sites (including Wells Fargo) use this approach for both backups and logs.

F.

Hi Gurey,
To upgrade to 9.4 would involve application changes and we are not ready due to other commitment. BTW, how much faster is the ontape in 9.4 compared to 7.3.

Hi Fprose,
Our ontape to tape took 1:40hrs
While ontape to disk took 1:15hrs, saving of only 20minutes.
and the fbackup from disk to tape took 2:00hrs.

We did not get much time savings to ontape to disk, only 20min,
Any suggestion to improve the speed ?

We are going to test the restoration (fbackup & ontape) this weekend.

Thank in advance

Our test to restore from disk failed.

Your reply is very much appreciated.

ONBar is much faster. Without spending any $$ I would change to onbar using ISM. Define the one tape drive and set onbar to run two threads. I have done much testing with onbar and this has worked for me each time. You might want to take a look at the onbar config file also.

Regards,
AC

Thanks for the suggestion but our DBA is not familiar with onbar.
Some assistance is very much appreciated

Oh Dear!

Well onbar works with this simple command obar -b for a full backup and onbar -l for llogs backup and onbar -b -F for a fake backup (there version of ontape to /dev/null). Do not do whole system backups.

All the work is up front. I will attempt to explain here but it is best that your DBA get this manual and look at it:
Backup and Restore Guide version 7.3

I have attached a file with everything.
Regards,
DBAgirl

Hi,

Thank you very much for the assistance.

I will get the DBA to test, during available time.

Thanks again.

Regards.

when i test on my machine, onbar does not work:
command : onbar -b -l 0

my machine env : informix database v7.30 uc2 work on SGI irix6.5

in my onconfig :
"BAR_BSALIB_PATH /usr/lib/libbssa.so" #XBSA shared lib path

1/ in /tmp/bar_act.log file a message as follow:

received signal 11.process **** exiting


2/ when i excute command: ism_add -admin informix@hostname

system error message "rpc error ,program not registered"


Thank in advance!

when i test ism_check in machine ,

error message :
¡°Checking ISM 1.00.UB1.117 distribution in /usr/informix...
*** Checksum error on /usr/informix/lib/libbsa.so!¡±

my informix software date mark as "19980518"
i guess my informix edition is so early that i can not use onbar .



Thanks !