RE: Creating nightly full backups

They are correct.

You can't do a full system backup while the system is in use as doing
the SAVSYS to save the "system" portion of the system requires
restricted state.

I'd imagine that IBM could change this if they wanted.  On the other
hand, have you ever tried to do a full system restore for one those
"saved while in use" Windows system vs. a full system restore for the
iSeries?

You can get almost the entire system using a combination of
SAVLIB *IBM
SAVLIB *ALLUSR
SAVSECDTA
SAVCFG
SAVDLO
SAV OBJ(('/*') ('/QSYS.LIB' *OMIT)('/QDLS' *OMIT)) UPDHST(*YES) 

The only thing you are missing is the Licensed internal code, which
should only change when you install IBM PTFs.  Such a save complicates
your restore process however.

Save while active (SWA) would allow you to do your daily saves without
shutting down your ERP.  However, note that SWA requires a period of
inactivity in order to reach a checkpoint for the objects.  For larger
systems being hammered 24/7, you have to end the jobs for the brief
period of time it takes to reach the check point, then you can restart.
For those systems who aren't busy, I've often been able to do a SWA
without actually ending any jobs.

In addition, if your entire system fits on one tape (or you have a
library or autoloader), there's no reason to do the full system save
attended.  Just pick a time for it to start on the SAVE menu option 21
screen.

You need to take a look at the Backup and Recovery portions of the
Information center.
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/iseries/v5r3/topic/rzaiu/rzaiui
cbackup.htm


HTH,

Charles Wilt
--
iSeries Systems Administrator / Developer
Mitsubishi Electric Automotive America
ph: 513-573-4343
fax: 513-398-1121
  

> -----Original Message-----
> From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx 
> [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Lukas Beeler
> Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 2:08 AM
> To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
> Subject: Creating nightly full backups
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I work at a rather small iSeries ISV. 
> 
> We have a 270 with around 70GB DASD, around 25GB used. This 
> machine runs
> V5R3M0.
> 
> A few days ago, i had an interesting discussion with our developers
> while thinking about a new backup concept (we just replaced our old
> windows 2000 server with a windows 2003 one).
> 
> On our windows and linux machines, i run nightly full backups, which
> allow for an easy and fast system restore. These backups are 
> completely
> automated, incur no downtime at all, our administative 
> personal just has
> to change the tapes.
> 
> On our iSeries however, we don't have anything like it. We do daily
> backups of our data and program libraries, but this requires our ERP
> software to shut down. Also, monthly (SAVLIB *NONSYS) and 
> system backups
> (SAVSYS) require an attended backup.
> 
> I would like to get this process up to date, running a nightly full
> backup which contains a SAVLIB *NONSYS and a SAVSYS, which 
> should allow
> us to restore using a single tape. Our iSeries developers (which,
> contrary to myself have a large amount of experience on the iSeries)
> said that this couldn't be done.
> 
> We do have BRMS licensed, but we don't use it (yet). I also 
> read about a
> "Save while Active" feature, which should allow to save librarys while
> they are in use.
> 
> Is there really no possibility to achieve something like that? Our
> iseries system was far more expensive than our windows machine
> (including all software licenses), but doesn't have the possibility to
> do a decent, unattended full backup? I learned to like this platform,
> but this looks like a rather big drawback
> 
> Hopefully you guys can tell me that we just didn't look at the right
> place.
> 
> Thanks in Advance,
> 
> Lukas Beeler
> 
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