RE: Backups in HA environments

I am using iTera Echo2 for HA.   I will call you tomorrow if that is OK and
discuss the procedures I am using to do backups. It might be what oyu are
looking for.

Dave Willenborg
FNTS
Omaha NE

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
smorrison@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2006 1:47 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Backups in HA environments

We are new to the HA environment, and still trying to take advantage of 
the features available in the HA environment. I'd appreciate some 
suggestions from others working in the HA environment for the best way to 
do backups. 

We have a pair of Model 520 I5+ systems running iTera Echoe2 software. Our 
business software is a custom written application, which we continue to 
enhance.  Each systems is partitioned into 2 partitions running business 
software. The first partition does our primary processing and the second 
partition provides our web services, and does data collection while the 
first partition does end of day processing. We need to maintain 24/7 
availability, but we are allowed a few minutes to switch our processing 
between these partitions.  Our initial plan (from the programmers) was to 
move the backup process to our HA box, and eliminate the backup window. 
This would also allow us to eliminate the switch between partitions, since 
the data collection can continue on the primary partition during our night 
processing. The HA box will be deployed to a remote location to allow our 
processing services to continue in case of problems at our primary site. 
We also have a third party remote hot site in case our first two sites are 
unavailable.

However our manager has declared that she wants to be able to get a set 
backup tapes from our primary site, in case we need to evacuate to our 
third party site. 
Has anyone else had to resolve this problem? 

One solution I am working through is to do the backup at our HA site, and 
then replicate the tapes back to our primary site.  We are currently 
backing up about 2.5GB each night. Our full system backup currently fits 
on a single 400GB tape. We are using BRMS for our backup/recovery 
solution. Does networking the BRMS tape libraries on the primary and 
backup systems allow us to duplicate tapes from one system to the other? 
We are currently running V5R3. Would Virtual Tape on V5R4 offer a better 
solution?


Steven Morrison
Fidelity Express 
903-885-1283  ext. 479