You are going from one OS to another....  that in itself is probably a
no-no.

But hey, why not try...

Restoring to cooked files when the backup was from raw devices should
not be an issue assuming on the raw setup, you used links to point to
the raw devices, and those links are what informix will look for.  So on
test system, make same named links, but point them to the cooked files.
(same size of course)

The change to TAPEDEV to get the data from remote server should work,
will you need to roll logs as well (thus need change to LTAPEDEV?).

Since you are using ontape, it should first give you some display of
what it intends to do and you can confirm before actually doing it (at
least that's what I remember of ontape, it's been years since I have
used it).
AND I think ontape would tell you that it can't restore because the DB
is up (that is if it was going to try to restore over PRD).

Norma Jean Sebastian
ERP Support Administration
IT -  Enterprise Technical Services

-----Original Message-----
From: informix-list-bounces@iiug.org
[mailto:informix-list-bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf Of Gary Quiring
Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2006 9:02 AM
To: informix-list@iiug.org
Subject: Ontape restore to another server

I have a need to restore our production DB (9.4) to a junk box to
salvage a table that recently lost some data.  I am not very familiar
with the steps required.  The production server is running Solaris 9
with raw devices.  I was hoping to restore to a Red Hat box using
cooked files.  Is that possible?

I also need to remotely restore the data from the tape drive as my RH
box has no tape device.  I assume just changing the TAPEDEV to
server:/dev/rmt/0 will work.  Will issuing the ontape -r from the red
hat server restore the data to the local drives?  I obviously don't
want to restore the data over the production server.

Thanks
Gary Quiring

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Gary

Forget it, there is no way this will even begin to work!
dbexport/dbimport is your only option between different O/S.

Keith

Don't think that's different than other DB products.

Use the right tool (dbexport/import like Keith said), and it'll work
fine.

Norma Jean Sebastian
ERP Support Administration
IT -  Enterprise Technical Services

-----Original Message-----
From: informix-list-bounces@iiug.org
[mailto:informix-list-bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf Of Gary Quiring
Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2006 9:33 AM
To: informix-list@iiug.org
Subject: Re: Ontape restore to another server

Keith Simmons wrote:

WOW!  Data is not compatible between OS's?  Why would Informix be so
inflexible about the data between hardware platforms?

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Excellent idea Keith!!

A second informix instance on the same solaris box is a great idea,
informix has such a small footprint anyway.  And if you PRD db is a
large memory instance, you can make the second instance much smaller,
restore take longer, but who cares, you don't want to impact PRD much.

If your solaris box doesn't have the disk space, heck..... nfs mount the
space from the linux box u were going to use.....   you can leave it
cooked, informix don't care, .........

BUT.... would there be a problem with the links?
     If DB1 (production) has dbspace-root set to linkX to raw deviceB
     Then.... second instance.... .... sorry, my brain just stopped
there....  guys, would there be a problem at this point....

Norma Jean Sebastian
ERP Support Administration
IT -  Enterprise Technical Services

-----Original Message-----
From: informix-list-bounces@iiug.org
[mailto:informix-list-bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf Of Keith Simmons
Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2006 10:40 AM
To: Gary Quiring
Cc: informix-list@iiug.org
Subject: Re: Ontape restore to another server

does

Gary

You were not asking for an archive/backup solution, only data
transfer. Horses for courses. Ontape is designed to archive data and
then restore it to the same or similar server. The two servers you
have probably have different page sizes (2K for Sol, 4K for Linux)
possibly different endedness (big or little), different procesors
(Sparc and Intel). Text files wold probably ftp between them OK but
ontape stores the data in binary page images (for speed of archive and
restore).
I would have thought cpio or tar wold not work between these servers
either, and they would only be transfering 'data'.
Do you have enough space on your Solaris box to create another
instance and then restore to this (using chunk renaming) just to
extract the table you need.
ou could investigate table level restores as well, although I can't
remember off the top of my head whether this is available at v9.4.

Keith
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I think the idea will work.  I have to look at some of my systems and
remember some things.

I am glad you said you would try this on your DEV box.  Is the name of
your DEV database different than your PRD database?   And what is the
name of your $INFORMIXDIR?

I believe you pegged the right onconfig params that need to be changed.
Let me put some more thought into it, check my systems,  and post back.

Of course, once we plan this out, you may still want a warm/fuzzy with
IBM Informix tech support.  I have done interesting things with my
systems, but I will only put my neck on the line, not yours ;)

Norma Jean Sebastian
ERP Support Administration
IT -  Enterprise Technical Services

-----Original Message-----
From: informix-list-bounces@iiug.org
[mailto:informix-list-bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf Of Gary Quiring
Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2006 2:20 PM
To: informix-list@iiug.org
Subject: Re: Ontape restore to another server

Sebastian, Norma J. wrote:

This instance idea with a mounted file system sounds like a solution.
I did use links for my raw devices so that should not be an issue.  My
dev box is also Solaris but has no space for the restore but the
mounted system from Linux can solve that.

Getting back to the tape drive which is unique on the production box.
If I add an instance on my dev box to use the production tape, is it
full proof that when I issue the ontape -r on the dev box that the
restore will be done locally and not on production?  I don't want the
restore stepping on the prod box.

Question for instances.  I have never configured one.  I would copy the
onconfig to another name and change the DBSERVERNAME, DBSERVERALIASES,
MSGPATH, SERVERNUM & ROOTHPATH.  I can keep my current INFORMIXDIR
right? Or do I need to make a complete copy else where?  I should just
need to change ONCONFIG & INFORMIXSERVER?

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Gary, go with the IDS 10 version of archecker to extract the data from the
tape and recreate the table in a small IDS 10 instance on the Sun box.  Then
you could extract and reload to the production server, or copy directly from
one to the other using dbaccess or my dbcopy utility as long as there are no
special columns (and you could upgrade the dbcopy source to support your
data types as well).

Art S. Kagel

Thanks Art,

That simplifies some of the stuff we've posted on this thread, and I
haven't had time for more digging.  Your way sounds the simplest.

I am not very experienced with archecker (last time I played with it was
years ago)....
I have a couple questions for my own clarification....

IDS 10 archecker would do that for v9.4?
.......if using v10 archecker to extract data from v9.4 ontape backup
into an IDS10 instance....
Would the v10 instance need to take into consideration chunk paths and
other things discussed when thinking of doing the ontape restore to
second instance?  Or can the IDS10 instance be set up pretty much any
old way not in consideration of the v9.4 instance or ontape data......
and still receive the v10 archecker data extract from v9.4 ontape
backup?

Thanks for your thoughts,

Norma Jean Sebastian
ERP Support Administration
IT -  Enterprise Technical Services

-----Original Message-----
From: informix-list-bounces@iiug.org
[mailto:informix-list-bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf Of Art S. Kagel
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2006 10:41 AM
To: informix-list@iiug.org
Subject: Re: Ontape restore to another server

Gary, go with the IDS 10 version of archecker to extract the data from
the
tape and recreate the table in a small IDS 10 instance on the Sun box.
Then
you could extract and reload to the production server, or copy directly
from
one to the other using dbaccess or my dbcopy utility as long as there
are no
special columns (and you could upgrade the dbcopy source to support your

data types as well).

Art S. Kagel
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