Conference cookie::archive_backup

1) Can I use Polycenter Save Set Manager to consolidate my full - and increment
save sets created by ABS?

He wants to do this, to avoid future full backup's and only do incremental
one's after only one initial full backup. The reason is the amount of data
to back up (260 GByte) and the time-slot available for backup.

Reading the Save Set Mgr SPD 62.64.07, Jan 97 I found no reference to ABS,
so I assume that the operations performed by the Save Set Mgr would NOT be
recorded in ABS's data base. If I'm right, then my next question is:

        Are there any plans to provide this or a similar functionality?
> 
> We have had requests to provide a functionality to be able to work with
> SSM.  What we are cuuretly trying to solve is to be able to use SSM to
> replicate the ABS save set, so that we have two identical copies of savesets.
> However, what is done in SSM (the second copy of the saveset) will not
> be reflected in the ABS catalog.
> What you have requested will not be reflected in the ABS catalog either.
> I will send your request to Judy Cross and Kim Hellwig and see what they
> say about this.
>

2) Customer has a 16 GByte ADABAS database. He wants to use ABS for backup.
But ABS would handle his DB just as a file, versus the ADABAS backup utility.
Is there a way to invoke the ADABAS utility from an ABS backup-request.

As a work-around I suggested using the ADABAS utility to create a backup on
disk and then let ABS backup that "backup-file". But this was turned down
because lack of disk space.

>
> As far as I know, we were never requested to support ADABAS backup before.
> (I have to check with Judy, though.) If it's not a high volume request,
> the chances are that we probably willnot get to support it soon.
> The support of the new agent is done mostly through creating a set of
> new text files called template files (see abs$templates directory). We
> can provide you with the information of how to create new template files
> if you'd like.  With our help, you can probably come up with fairly
> decent ADABAS backup support.  
>

3) MS Exchange Server backup: I was told that there is a special backup utility
from MS for this purpose. Is there a way to properly backup a MS exchange
server using ABS client for NT?

>
> We use Gnutar as backup engine on NT.  Other backup engines are not supported.
> Judy Cross is the person to give input about what to be supported next.
>

>
> I don't know about licensing.  I will get Judy's attention to get answers.
>
    
    Masami

re .1: 2)

If I understand you correctly, using template files, you could invoke any
"backup agent". Right?

Is the ABS catalog updated in such a way, that when restoring such
"special" files ABS automatically knows what template to use?

I suppose writing templates is currently NOT explained in the public ABS
documentation. I've only read what comes with ABS OMT, though.


Thanks!

/wb

Yes, the templates define the object types that are supported
and in turn define the backup agent that will be invoked for
that object, along with commands and qualifiers.

The catalog uses the object type for storing information about
the files saved and can therefore restore that information.

We do not explain how to do this yet because it is not trivial
and just can't support it at this time.

Lyle

Wilfred,

You will need two server licenses in this configuration. In fact, we
recommend two server licences in most situations to provide failover.

Thanks for your input regarding future requirements!

Judy

    
    re: templates
    
    If you create your own templates, you have to support them yourself. 
    The Engineering group will only support what we ship with the product.
    We do not ship the information of how to create template files, because
    we do not want them to create/modify them without our knowledge.
    
    Also, the person who's creating/modifying the templates must be quite
    knowledgeable about ABS, and be able to throughly test the templates
    with the ABS functionality.  
    
    Thanks,
    Masami