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ISAM db Backup Challenges

avazquez
Level 4

Happ Friday!!

Guys, I am currently backing up a huge ISAM database, and it takes a while since it has to be a daily full.  So my thinking is to use NBU Accelerator.

Do any of you know if by using Accelerartor if the integrity of the database backup will be in good order, and/or could I potentially run into issues whne I restore?

The only thing that I know about ISAM dbs, is that they are flat files, and I am not sure how they behave in terms of changes, since if using Accelerator each full will be a synthetic backup (a funky-dunky differential).

 

I hope all this makes sense.

 

Thanks,

AVazquez

 

7 REPLIES 7

Nicolai
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP   

Can't tell - Who is the vendor of the database. ISAM is just a acronym for " Indexed Sequential Access Method". Maybe Accelerator is the right choice maybe not.

Has the vendor a approved backup method ?

avazquez
Level 4

Thanks for the reply.  The vendor is IBM, so I will follow-up with them and I will post an update once I findout if using Accelerator will be compatible with this type of db.

LucSkywalker195
Level 4
Certified

How are you backing this up? Standard? Is it accross your LAN? Do you have ability to put it on attached storage where you might already be doing NDMP backups on fibre? Is this Unix or Windows?

avazquez
Level 4

Yes, we do a MS-Windows backup of the volume which has a copy of the database, which just takes forever.  And as I stated before, I would like to speed up the process by doing a client dedup with Accelerator on a daily full.  The volume is on a SAN, but we do not have an NDMP license.

 

Thanks,

AVazquez

LucSkywalker195
Level 4
Certified

I think I'd try to make the Windows server that this DB is located on a media server and put a 2nd dedicated GB NIC card or fibre HBA in it just for the backup connected directly to the backup LAN/fabric and let it back itself up to the backup resources. Do you have any extra media server licenses around?

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

....we do a MS-Windows backup of the volume which has a copy of the database ....

Are you using some sort of snapshot technology?

Have you tried to restore from these backups yet?

If existing backup method is good (i.e. successful restore), then dedupe with Acellerator seems like a good idea.

avazquez
Level 4

@Marianne:  Yes, we terminate all connections to the db, since we do not have the ability to quiese the ISAM db, then we take snapshot of the volume hosting it, and mount/copy the snapshot to another server, then kick-off an NBU backup.  This process I wish to make more efficient by using Accelerator and/or someother solution.  The entire process takes a while since the db is large; Snap mount/copy, backup and restore to validate.

The restore is validated daily so the integrity of the NBU backup is good.  I am hesitate to employ Accelerator, since I am not sure how the ISAM files behave in terms of how Accelerator will determine if an actual file changed, since ISAM is all index based flatfile database.  I hope this makes sense.

 

AVazquez