Adopted a Domino TDP client...

[kfiresmith]

Trouble is, I'm not a Domino guy, and no one really is in our company, and the consultants that manage the Domino service don't know jack.

What's a good basic API backup strategy for a small (13GB) Domino server?

In the month I've been backing this machine up, the API data has eaten up 400GB of TSM primary tape space, and we only retain expired data for 14 days.

Thanks guys!

- Kodiak

 

[Harry_Redl]

Hi,

it depends Simplest thing is to do daily full, which is 13GB*14days = 182GB. This is simple and foolproof. If you want to get point-in time feature (ability to restore to any point between backups), then you need to backup transaction logs which is a bit more tricky, because you need to run log inactivation and such.
If it is enough to restore data to last midnight state - go for fulls only

Harry

 

[kfiresmith]

Thanks for the reply Harry, it's like you live on here, haha!

I think I should be doing incrementals, as this TSM server is getting hammered already by other nodes.

This is what the Domino TDP docs suggest:
Incremental Backup of all databases

• Frequency - once a day
• Sample command file, dominc.smp, exists in the Data Protection for Domino installation directory
• Domdsmc log file created - dominc.log
• Output redirected - domisch.log

Selective Backup of All Logged Databases

• Frequency - once a week, maybe Saturday
• Sample command file, domsel.smp, exists in the Data Protection for Domino installation directory
• Domdsmc log file created - domsel.log
• Output redirected - domssch.log

Inactive Logs

• Frequency - once a week, maybe Sunday, this is to ensure that the selective backup has completed
• Sample command file, domina.smp, exists in the Data Protection for Domino installation directory
• Domdsmc log file created - domina.log
• Output redirected - domiasch.log

Does anything else need to be happening to make the un-needed data rot off?

Also, what does the domarc.cmd bat script do? That seems to be set up to run every 12 hours right now. (inherited)

 

[Harry_Redl]

Hi,

first thing to check is how Domino transactional logging is set. If it is set to "Circular" (or disabled at all) then you can do FULLs only.
So when you have ARCHIVE transactional logging enabled - how the various methods for Domino backup work?
Full (selective) backups complete database
Incremental backups COMPLETE databases if they are new (or changed DBIID - unique number for Domino DB) or changed and not under archive transactional logging.
So there is NOTHING in Domino than can backup partial Domino DB.
Then there is transactional log backup. Using this you backup changes to Domino databases. So when you are restoring point-in-time, you restore Domino DB and then you apply the logs. Once the logs are backed up, Domino knows it can overwrite (reuse) them.

So the common way how to backup Domino using tr.logging is:
once a week run a full backup (domsel script)
daily an incremental backup (domincr script) - for catching "new" DBs
every XY hours backup the logs (domarc script)
once a week inactivate old trans.logs (domina script)

Is it understandable this way?

Harry

 

[kfiresmith]

I just found out that they are moving to circular logging with the new server, so I'll leave this be, and just do daily fulls on the new server.
Thanks for the info, guys.
- Kodiak