Hi Joe,

I would be skeptical of using any "open file" software to back up
an application that implements a complex database technology.
You are talking about backing up the files that a
live application uses to store the data. It is true that
"open file" support will allow you to get a snapshot of that
file at some "point in time". But, backing up those files
does not take into consideration things like in-memory cached pages
and more importantly transaction based updates. You might argue
that applications use transaction logging to help resolve those
inconsistencies after a restore... and that is true.
But, in my opinion, it is much better to use a database aware
backup application that works in collaboration with
the application itself to obtain a reliable and consistent backup.
Of course, this is the reason we have "Data Protection" clients.
And thus, your original request.... as of right now IBM does not
have a Data Protection for Groupwise client. And so, until that
happens, using a tool that helps provide that application aware
solution is your best bet. Novell appears to have a free tool to
help you do that for Groupwise... I would start there.

Thanks,

Del

----------------------------------------------------

Del Hoobler
IBM Corporation
hoobler AT us.ibm DOT com

"ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU> wrote on 04/02/2004
09:29:27 AM:

> Hi Aaron,
>
> I didn't really expect so many replies, but unfortunately they are
> all different, and I 'm still little bit confused what to do. I
> didn't understand if you are using OFM from St. Bernard or something
else.
> As I said I would prefer Kevin's option "don't need anything", but
> it looks little bit risky.
>
> If it's possible I would use GWBackup because it's free tool, and
> it's designed by Novell and it's proprietary for GroupWise. Can you
> point the differences between OFM and GWBackup.