Backing up a post office - DBCOPY Assistance

[timmoat]

Hi all,

At present we currently backup our PO incrementally using DBCOPY and from time to time copy/merge the changes to a backup server, delete the backPO on the active server, and start the incremental again from that date.

Does this seem odd/bizarre to anyone!? Surely the backup on the spare server contain far to much information? As emails are archived our Post Office remains a constant size of around 45 gig.

Surely it would be best to DBCOPY the entire Post Office each night to a folder called BackPO. Copy this to the tape. Then delete the folder BackPO. And then repeat as above each day?

I have inherited some oddities in our current network and this is one of them!

Any advice appreciated!

 

[marvhuffaker]

It is probably setup that way to save the time of each backup. While 45GB isn't a ton of data, doing a full every night will take longer than doing incrementals.

Also, it could be argued that there is no need to do a full each night since the incremental takes less time, is less data to copy, and essentially gives you the same thing. Why copy the same stuff that you already have? 95% of a post office data is static, never changes. Only the stuff that came in or got sent that day would change. Everything else stays the same.



Marvin Huffaker, MCNE
Marvin Huffaker Consulting, Inc.
A Novell Platinum Partner

http://www.redjuju.com

 

[timmoat]

Thanks for the quick reply.

With that in mind though surely deleting the current backpo folder once its been copied to the spare server and then changing the incremental to start from the new days date still doesnt make much sense?

It means the new backpo folder would contain just 1 days worth of changes. In the event of a restore we would need to get the data back from 2 places which doesnt make much sense to me. 2 points of failure instead of 1?

Basically the current backpo is twice the size of the actual post office because of course, it doesnt clean up after itself. Would you recommend we always start with a full PO and then incrementally add information to it? Then perhaps once a month blowing it away and starting again? Disk space is a slight concern as we are now down to 50gig free - backPO is taking up 80gig, in addition to the 40gig currently in the active post office.

Confusing!

 

[marvhuffaker]

I missed the part about you saying you were deleting it after it was copied. yeah that is retarded. I wouldn't do it that way either, way too complicated.

DBCOPY adds to the backup location but does not account for data / messages / files that have been removed from the live system. they will still be in the backup. Not a big deal, just a little bloat. Blowing it away completely once a month could help you manage that a little.

Marvin Huffaker, MCNE
Marvin Huffaker Consulting, Inc.
A Novell Platinum Partner

http://www.redjuju.com

 

[timmoat]

Thank god you've said that - I thought I was going mad! There are a number of things in this place that are not done logically but as they've always been done like that its law...not for long!

Could you answer one more question for me? Lets say I restore a backpo that contains a months worth of data so its abit bloated. All the emails that would have been archived during that month would suddenly reappear again I would guess? Do they get re-archived or does the archive realise that the message is already present in the archived mail so it just removes it?

 

[marvhuffaker]

That's not a concern. Yes there will be some bloat as far as extra files goes. But technically the extra files don't exist from a user or system standpoint because they won't be in the indexes.

Marvin Huffaker, MCNE
Marvin Huffaker Consulting, Inc.
A Novell Platinum Partner

http://www.redjuju.com