how to make dbexport compressed?

[alfonsogt]

Dear friends:

I'm relativily newbie in Informix (my system is HP/UX based). In job we got one big DB, and until now we are making backup using a tape device with:

ontape -s -L 0

Some friend told me it's better to make, every certain time, a dbexport of the DB. I think it could be a good idea to make it in a directory (for example /home/myname/informix_backup), then send it via FTP to my W98 system and stored it in a CD-R. My ask is:

it is possible to make it only with:

dbexport -ss name_of_DB name_of_DB_export

and then, can Informix zip or compress automatically the result?

Thanks in advance!

Alfonso García [sig][/sig]

 

[titu3010]

Hi Alfonso,

The ontape utility cannot make archives at the dbsapce level, it work only at the system level; but the restore
operation can be done at the dbspace level.It provides automatic backup of your logical logs.
The ideal way should be you take dbexport of all your databases and store them in CD-R/tape and also take ontape backup suiting your level 0,1 or 2. I don't think informix
can automatically compress or zip them. I hope this will clear your doubt.

Regards.

Manishi
[sig][/sig]

 

[alfonsogt]

Dear Manishi:

Can you explain me more detailed the diference between dbspace level and system level?

If some day my system crash down, can I restore my DB with the tape that contains the ontape output??

Thanks!

[sig][/sig]

 

[titu3010]

Hi Alfonso,

The ontape utility for backup doesn't work at dbspace level means that you cannot be choosy about the database you want to archive.It works only from the command line and no menu driven interface. However the ontape utility can restore the information both at dbsapce (i.e. you can be choosy about the particular database) level and system level (i.e. for the whole system).
ontape -r will restore the whole system but be careful for answering the questions it asked.
If you want to restore at dbspace level then give the command as <ontape -r -D (database name)>

The -r option will restore the database physically and logically.

(By the way from which country you are mailing)
Thanks

Manishi
(India)

 

[alfonsogt]

Thanks Manishi. Now it's clear the difference for me. Yesterday I made a dbexport of one of our DBs in a subdir, then I made tar -cvf /dev/rmt/0m name_of_subdir. I believe I will write a small script to make it automatically.

My company is medium sized hospital. I live - and work - in Spain.

My private e-mail is:
alfgarte@hotmail.com

Are you experienced with Informix Dynamic Server?

 

[loose]

aasd

 

[richman]

alfonsogt,

Since you are using Unix try the compress command to reduce the size of the dbexport files. If you execute compress -v 'filename' you can see the amount of space reduction. Then take the compressed file(s) and combine them using the tar command.

 

[purna01]

Hi Manishi:

Is there any script that is available , can ontape -s -L 0 database which is big
and requires a 2nd tape. We basically archive the database in to a directory

When it is done with the first archive file it looks for the 2nd archive file.

Any help will be appreciated

Aireen

 

[Chenge]

Dear Friends

I'm an Informix IDS 7.3 user on an HP-UX platform with a database size of 10gig. Although I recently upgraded my tape drive to the 24/48gig size I'm having to use up to 5 dat tapes to do my dbexport even though my tapes are 24/48 DDS4.

Someone one told me that you can only specify a 2gig size when doing your dbexport. I've tried specifing a bigger tape size (12288000) but it says that the block size must be less or equal to the tape size. I'm using a block size of 16.

How can I get the dbexport onto only one tape? and what is the relationship between the tape size and block size?

Please help.

Regards

Chenge.

 

[gheist]

Looks like a brand new question - ok
yo will need to specify tape parameters in etc/onconfig (ie size in kilobytes )

 

[giriraju]

It's good to use unload table wise and compress, and save schema. it helps u to recover table level restore. compression also good with this.