At 01:06 AM 6/26/97 +0000, you wrote:
>
>Thanks for your reply.  Here is why I am asking:
>
>I am working with a customer who is evaluating ADSM.  They run many
>applications on many  servers, the most critical ones on AIX machines.
>They want to use ADSM for their daily backups but they also want to
>take a copy each month for permanent storage.
>
>The ADSM Archive process seems to be well suited for that and much can be
>accomplished with a normal file system archive.  However, some of their
>applications run on Informix.  So the question is, how do they set up a
>schedule where they back up their database every day with a backup
>retention setting of X days while taking a copy (or Level-0 backup/
>archive) every month that never expires ??

If they truly want a *long-term* archive, they shouldn't be archiving the
database. They need to archive the *data* -- in a plain, ascii flatfile
format, suitable for loading into whatever database is being used when they
want to access the data -- Oracle, Informix, DB2, Postgress, MS-Access,
whatever. ADSM will do the archive just fine; what will they read the data
with six years from now?

I currently have some tapes with DMIV-TP (IDS-II) database files from a
Honeywell DPS-8 running GCOS3; in six months, my IBM mainframe (VSAM/IMS
under MVS) goes away (permanently). I can migrate/copy ascii files from one
system to another - but the backups/archives of the old databases are
worthless.

Tom Kauffman
Sr. Systems Programmer
NIBCO, Inc.