Lotus Notes Backup - Agent vs. Flat Files

[brupnick]

Good morning-

Now that we have upgraded to BE 2010R2, I thought it might be a good idea to re-evaluate how we are doing our Lotus Notes backups.  The person previously responsible for the backups always had problems using the agent, so they were using regular flat file backups for all the Notes files.  We have licenses for the agent, so I believe I have everything that I need.  

I want to add that we currently have the following registry change in place:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH23369

But I do have the following questions:

1.) While this might be a very basic question, what do I gain by using the agent as opposed to backing up the files directly?  Will using the agent allow me to do differential backups?  (I see this option within the backup job settings, but I just want to be sure that this is the case)

2.) If I still want to do a full restore of my Lotus Notes server, but exclude the files that would be backed up by the agent, is there an easy way to do this?  That is, I'd like to have one job that just does the Lotus Notes "stuff" and another job that just does the server - Windows, Program Files, etc.

--UPDATE: I originally posted this question without knowing that we had changed the registry as indicated in the article above.  Our intention is to change this back to the default setting of "0" so that these files are hidden again.  That being said, will that address #2?

Thank you,

Brian

[Munir2Fast]

Hi,

1. Backup Exec uses Lotus Domino APIs to obtain the backup of the database, it backups up logs as well as other lotus database settings & yes you can perform a differential backups for the data bases. Please refer to the following article for details :

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO23288

2. It will restore what has been backed-up, refer to the follow link & the related links in the same to find out more details for restore :

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO23280

[NeerThadarai]

1.) While this might be a very basic question, what do I gain by using the agent as opposed to backing up the files directly?  Will using the agent allow me to do differential backups?  (I see this option within the backup job settings, but I just want to be sure that this is the case)

Ans: Differential backup is possible. Doing a backup this way assures a good backup of database without having a risk of database corruption.

Latest Backup Exec version allows the Domino Attachment and Object Service (DAOS).

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO23295

More information you can find about what Domino agent can do can be found here

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO23298

2.) If I still want to do a full restore of my Lotus Notes server, but exclude the files that would be backed up by the agent, is there an easy way to do this?  That is, I'd like to have one job that just does the Lotus Notes "stuff" and another job that just does the server - Windows, Program Files, etc.

Ans:  Its always a good idea to backup system files and databases separately in two different jobs.

About Recovering a Lotus Domino server and its databases you can this

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO23274

Let us know if this helps

[Ken_Putnam]

1)  The most important difference is that you need to shut down the Domino Server Service  to backup the flat files (just like any other database service - SQL/Exchange/Oracle)  Usually not a option at most shops

With the Agent backup, the server service stays running

[brupnick]

Thanks everyone for your input.  I made the registry change so that the Enable Offline Backup value is now set to 0.  I then rebooted the backup server and checked my existing selection list.  I was still able to view the .nsf files in the D:\Lotus\Domino\data\mail directory as well as through the Lotus Notes Agent.  When I cleared and then checked the checkbox next to my Notes server, all of the flat-file .nsf files were selected in addition to the .nsf files under the Lotus Notes Agent.  Does this mean that I'm going to be backing up both copies of the .nsf or does the Enable Offline Backup registry setting trigger some sort of runtime exclusion list?  Because I never saw these screens before making the registry change, I'm not sure what the default behavior is supposed to look like.

[pkh · Accepted solution]

Since you made the registry change, AFE is in effect and these files are automatically excluded.  See the document below

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO23287&actp=search&viewlocale=en_...

[Ken_Putnam]

PKH

The Tech Note referenced by the OP turns AFE OFF for Domino

[pkh]

I aware of that.  He turned AFE on again

I made the registry change so that the Enable Offline Backup value is now set to 0.