This morning, when I looked at my server, the tape that was marked as
destroyed was gone! (Things that go bump in the night????)
My best guess? That expiration came by and processed the file, and then
deleted the tape. I have a scenario in my mind that might explain what
happened, but it is somewhat involved, so please bear with me.
Assume that the file changes daily, and we keep 3 copies. Here is what I
think might be happening.......
1. The nightly incremental backup kicks off, and the file is backed up. This
causes the oldest copy to be deleted.
2. Expiration runs.
3. The backup of primary pool where the latest backup resides is done.
This is the base process that I think happens, based on when we schedule
activities, when the client is backed up, etc.
There are several questions now.
A. When step 1 above is complete, and the new file is backed up, of course
and old, inactive file is deleted. Is the corresponding backup file for the
now deleted file also deleted? It would appear not - that would explain why I
get a rash of files on copypool tapes that cannot be reclaimed because the
primary copy no longer exists.
B. When step 3 occurs, is the oldest inactive backup deleted (if it fits
criteria?) It would seem so, thus explaining why my tape disappeared last
night.
To further amplify this problem we have been having some server stability
problems, that have in turn caused our copypool processes to get delayed.
This probably makes a lot more of this kind of thing to go on.
Also, this looks like an operational issue. My first preference would be that
if an inactive file is deleted, I would like the copy of the file to also
disappear to, since I assume the file is now useless - it can't be restored be
cause the primary file is gone. Or is there a concern because if I go into a
disaster situation, I may wind up running with a DB that is older, and files
that were "deleted" are now assumed to still be good, since we have traveled
back in time.......
Jerry Lawson
PS - I unfortunately did not have a chance to do a Q content on the tape in
question, so I can't answer the question you raised. I would tend to think
though, that there was a backup for this file - since I am looking at a copy
of the file in a copypool already (although I understand that there is the
possibility as you pointed out that this is not the same file.......
JL
________________________Forward Header________________________
Author: INTERNET.OWNERAD
Subject: The Mystery of the Missing File......
03-13-97 01:57 PM
My guess is that the file you are trying to restore was never backed up to
the copy storage pool. You can verify that using the Copied parameter
of the Query Content command. The fact that you happen to see a file with the
same name on a copy pool volume does not mean that this file is the same
object. The files you see on the primary and copy pool volumes are probably
different versions of the same file, and hence different objects as far as
restore processing is concerned.
Dave Cannon
ADSM Development
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