Recommended LN6/Dom6 Solutions

[seejayohh]

Re All:

I'm relatively new to the Lotus/Domino scene, and must now contended with a small business and a single Domino 6 Server with LN6 clients.

I'm specifically looking for recommended backup solutions which allow for simple backup *and* recovery. I've already looked into Vertias Backup Exec. and Arcserve, and both appear to have Lotus agents to deal with open files etc. They both come with a hefty price tag as well. Is it safe to say it's worth the extra coin for the Lotus agents?

I'm wondering if I could get away with good 'ol ntbackup, and shutdown the server before and after. Does anyone use this method, and how easy or successful would restorations be using ntbackup?

Aside from the .NSF and .NTF files, what other elements of Domino would/should be backed up?

Thanks to all in advance.

Cheers

 

[pmonett]

If you are sure the server does not need to run 24/7, and can suffer being shut down from midnight to four in the morning, then I guess what you call an "NT backup" would do nicely.

As for what files to backup, you are correct in guessing that NSF ad NTF files are the most important.

I would simply ensure that all files in the Notes data directory and the Notes program directory are backed up. If that is not satisfactory, then make sure your notes.ini file is backed up.

It is up to you to decide what level of recovery you want. If you backup the whole Domino implementation, then if there is a problem you can just overwrite with the last good beckup and be done with it.

If you go for a partial backup, you will probably have to erase the installation, reinstall and then overwrite. Takes more time.

Pascal.

 

[seejayohh]

Pascal,

Thanks for your quick reply.

Aside from being able to backup the Domino server while running, are there any other advantages to using the BackupExec & Agent over ntbackup? Is it good enough to just restore the NSF/NTF files should/if the need arise?

I assume that if I shutdown the server and backup that way, I don't have to worry about having transaction logging enabled for recovery?

Cheers

 

[pmonett]

I am not an administrator, so I cannot give you any real-life reasons for real-time backup over batch backup.

However, Domino/Notes is an application which stores almost all its data in .NSF files (NTF are only design templates). The notes.ini file is almost the only exception (with desktop.dsk and cache.dsk for client versions).

Therefor, being able to correctly backup NSF files is your prime requisite for ensuring data safety in a Domino environment.

By the way, there is also the Mail.BOX file, but given that that file only contains mail to be sent out, I would think that backing it up would create more problems than it would solve. Indeed, normally mail does not wait all that long before being sent, so I see little sense in preserving the contents of that particular file.

Pascal.