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Operating Systems AIX Help in understanding how backup and restore works in any organization? Post 302932566 by bakunin on Thursday 22nd of January 2015 02:06:33 PM
Old 01-22-2015
There are many constraints for backups and therefore many different strategies. Every backup solution is a trade-off between many such constraints: time, effort, money, feasibility, risk assessment, .... Here are some pointers, no completeness is intended at all:

1) What do you need the backup for?

There are many different reason you take backups: you want to restore the base system (after a hardware crash or after a misconfiguration). For this you use the "mksysb" command (and usually a NIM server as destination). You might want to restore application data. These come in two basic classes: transaction data and fixed data. When you install the DB software all the binaries, configuration files, etc. are fixed and you need a new backup only when something changes. The transaction data (the DB content, archive logs, etc.) you need to back up more or less permanently.


2) How long may a restore take?

Suppose your hardware is blanked out completely and you start over to install/restore from scratch. How long do you have time until the system has to be back up no matter what? Depending on the answer to that question you need to have different strategies. If the answer is "1 week" a USB-attached tape drive might suffice and you might not bother to back up the OS completely. You could always install from scratch and maintain copies of some vital config files. If the answer is "3 hours" you will not be able to install and configure the system anew but need automated restore mechanisms as well as potent backup connections to restore fast. Maybe your answer is in between and hence the reasonable equipment is in between these two extremes too.


3) Develop several scenarios and test your environment against it

You might think a backup is about restoring files, but this is not the case always. Here are some scenarios, off the top of my head, there are a lot more:

A - restore the OS from scratch or duplicate it to a new machine

B - restore a vital application file of a given size

C - put back the database into the state it had 2 days ago at 11:25 am.

D - restore the database to its latest state (suppose the storage failed).

For each of these scenarios ask yourself: will your solution/environment be able to do it? How long will it take: under optimal conditions? Under adverse conditions? How much effort will be involved? Does the user have to be able to do it himself or should he rely on (one from the) the sysadmin(-team)?

I hope this helps.

bakunin
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BACKUP_DBVERIFY(8)					       AFS Command Reference						BACKUP_DBVERIFY(8)

NAME
backup_dbverify - Checks the integrity of the Backup Database SYNOPSIS
backup dbverify [-detail] [-localauth] [-cell <cell name>] [-help] backup db [-d] [-l] [-c <cell name>] [-h] DESCRIPTION
The backup dbverify command checks the integrity of the Backup Database. The command's output indicates whether the Backup Database is damaged (data is corrupted) or not. If the Backup Database is undamaged, it is safe to continue using it. If it is corrupted, discontinue any backup operations until it is repaired. CAUTIONS
While this command runs, no other backup operation can access the Backup Database; the other commands do not run until this command completes. Avoid issuing this command when other backup operations are likely to run. The backup savedb command repairs some types of corruption. OPTIONS
-detail Reports the number of orphaned blocks found, any inconsistencies, and the name of the server machine running the Backup Server that is checking its copy of the database. -localauth Constructs a server ticket using a key from the local /etc/openafs/server/KeyFile file. The backup command interpreter presents it to the Backup Server, Volume Server and VL Server during mutual authentication. Do not combine this flag with the -cell argument. For more details, see backup(8). -cell <cell name> Names the cell in which to run the command. Do not combine this argument with the -localauth flag. For more details, see backup(8). -help Prints the online help for this command. All other valid options are ignored. OUTPUT
The command displays one of the following two messages: Database OK The database is undamaged and can be used. Database not OK The database is damaged. You can use the backup savedb command to repair many kinds of corruption as it creates a backup copy. For more detailed instructions, see the OpenAFS Administration Guide chapter about performing backup operations. The -detail flag provides additional information: o The number of orphan blocks found. These are ranges of memory that the Backup Server preallocated in the database but cannot use. Orphan blocks do not interfere with database access, but do waste disk space. To free the unusable space, dump the database to tape by using the backup savedb command, and then restore it by using the backup restoredb command. o Any inconsistencies in the database, such as invalid hostnames for Tape Coordinator machines. o The name of the database server machine on which the Backup Database was checked, designated as the "Database checker". For a detailed trace of the verification operation, see the /var/log/openafs/BackupLog file on the indicated machine. You can use the bos getlog command to display it. EXAMPLES
The following command confirms that the Backup Database is undamaged: % backup dbverify Database OK The following command confirms that the Backup Database is undamaged and that it has no orphan blocks or invalid Tape Coordinator entries. The Backup Server running on the machine "db1.abc.com" checked its copy of the Database. % backup dbverify -detail Database OK Orphan blocks 0 Database checker was db1.abc.com PRIVILEGE REQUIRED
The issuer must be listed in the /etc/openafs/server/UserList file on every machine where the Backup Server is running, or must be logged onto a server machine as the local superuser "root" if the -localauth flag is included. SEE ALSO
BackupLog(5), backup(8), backup_restoredb(8), backup_savedb(8), bos_getlog(8) COPYRIGHT
IBM Corporation 2000. <http://www.ibm.com/> All Rights Reserved. This documentation is covered by the IBM Public License Version 1.0. It was converted from HTML to POD by software written by Chas Williams and Russ Allbery, based on work by Alf Wachsmann and Elizabeth Cassell. OpenAFS 2012-03-26 BACKUP_DBVERIFY(8)
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