Veritas NetBackup™ for Informix Administrator's Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): NetBackup (8.1.2)
  1. Introduction to NetBackup for Informix
    1.  
      Features of NetBackup for Informix
    2.  
      About NetBackup for Informix
    3.  
      About NetBackup for Informix terms
    4.  
      Example NetBackup for Informix configuration
    5.  
      About the Informix ON-bar utility and library
    6.  
      How NetBackup for Informix works
  2. Installing NetBackup for Informix
    1.  
      Planning the installation of NetBackup for Informix
    2.  
      Verifying the operating system and platform compatibility
    3.  
      NetBackup server and client requirements
    4.  
      Informix server software requirements
    5.  
      About the license for NetBackup for Informix
    6.  
      Specifying the Informix home path
    7.  
      Adding new Informix instances
  3. Configuring NetBackup for Informix
    1.  
      About configuring NetBackup for Informix
    2. About configuring a backup policy for Informix
      1.  
        Adding a new NetBackup for Informix policy
      2.  
        About policy attributes
      3.  
        Configuring an application backup schedule
      4.  
        Configuring automatic backup schedules
      5. About schedule properties
        1.  
          NetBackup for Informix backup types
        2.  
          Example application backup schedule
        3.  
          Example automatic backup schedule
      6.  
        Adding clients to a policy
      7.  
        Adding NetBackup for Informix scripts to the backup selections list
      8.  
        Rules for NetBackup for Informix scripts
      9.  
        Configuring a Standard policy for backup of the $INFORMIXDIR/etc files
    3. About NetBackup for Informix scripts
      1.  
        Modifying NetBackup for Informix scripts
      2.  
        About NetBackup for Informix environment variables
    4.  
      Configuring an additional bp.conf file
    5.  
      About permissions for NetBackup for Informix log files
    6.  
      Reviewing the auto-discovered mappings in Host Management
    7.  
      Configuring the Maximum jobs per client
    8.  
      Performing a manual backup
  4. Performing backups and restores of Informix
    1.  
      About using NetBackup for Informix
    2.  
      About Informix ON-Bar backup types
    3.  
      Example Informix backup strategy
    4.  
      Automatic backup policy for Informix
    5.  
      Manual backup policy for Informix
    6.  
      Using the onbar command to perform a user-directed backup
    7.  
      About browsing Informix backups
    8.  
      Restoring files to the original client
    9.  
      Redirecting an Informix restore to a different client
    10.  
      Example restore of an Informix database
  5. Troubleshooting
    1.  
      Verifying the NetBackup for Informix configuration
    2.  
      Verifying NetBackup for Informix log files
    3.  
      Enabling the debug logs manually
    4. About the NetBackup for Informix log files
      1.  
        About the bphdb directory on the database client
      2.  
        About the infxbsa directory on the database client
    5.  
      About NetBackup server reports
    6.  
      Setting the debug level
    7.  
      Minimizing timeout failures on large database restores
    8.  
      Minimizing the loading and unloading of tapes for database backups
    9.  
      Deleting expired backups from the Informix backup database
    10.  
      Delays in completion of backup jobs
  6. Appendix A. Register authorized locations
    1.  
      Registering authorized locations used by a NetBackup database script-based policy

Example Informix backup strategy

The backup strategy in the following example is for a database that requires frequent backups to provide protection against disk failure.

This strategy is as follows:

  • Perform an Informix full backup (level 0) every Friday night.

    This backs up the selected dbspaces.

  • Perform an Informix incremental backup (level 1) each night.

  • Back up the $INFORMIXDIR/etc directory once a day.

    The sample scripts that NetBackup for Informix installs by default include parameters to back up the $INFORMIXDIR/etc directory after each full or each incremental backup.

  • Configure the Informix ALARMPROGRAM to start a logical-log backup as the logs fill.

    If you do not want to wait for log files to fill, you can set up a separate NetBackup policy and then schedule a full logical-log backup to occur as often as necessary. Have a good strategy for backing up logical-log files because they are needed for database recovery.