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

How NetBackup for Informix works

You can run an ON-Bar script in one of the following ways:

  • Automatically, from the NetBackup scheduler

  • From the NetBackup administration interface on the NetBackup master server

  • From the command line on the NetBackup client

With the exception of the command-line method, a NetBackup process named bphdb starts the ON-Bar script on the client.

The following events occur for a backup:

  • The onbar command starts the requested operation on the databases.

  • If the process requires media to store backup data, onbar starts a user-directed backup by issuing a backup request.

  • The NetBackup media server connects to ON-Bar through the NetBackup library on the client and transfers the database data to secondary storage.

A restore works in essentially the same manner except that onbar issues a restore request. This action causes NetBackup to retrieve the data from secondary storage and send it to NetBackup for Informix on the client.

The status for an ON-Bar operation is logged in the Informix BAR_ACT_LOG. A database administrator can use this log to determine if a backup or restore was successful.

NetBackup also logs status, but only for its own part of the operation. This debug log is located in the following directory:

/usr/openv/netbackup/logs/infbsa

A database administrator cannot use NetBackup status to determine whether ON-Bar was successful because errors can occur in ON-Bar that do not affect NetBackup and are not recorded in its logs.