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Administering
In addition to administering the database server, you can tune performance, replicate data, and archive data.
Backup and Restore Guide
The Informix® Backup and Restore Guide describes how to use the Informix ON-Bar and ontape utilities to back up and restore database server data. These utilities enable you to recover your databases after data is lost or becomes corrupted due to hardware or software failure or accident.
ON-Bar backup and restore system
Overview of the ON-Bar backup and restore system
ON-Bar consists of various components and it works with a storage manager to back up and restore data.
ON-Bar components
ON-Bar components include a command-line utility, catalog tables, an activity log, and an emergency boot file. You use ON-Bar with a storage manager and the XBSA shared library for the storage manager.
Backup Services API (XBSA)
ON-Bar and the storage manager communicate through the Backup Services Application Programming Interface (XBSA), which enables the storage manager to manage media for the database server. By using an open-system interface to the storage manager, ON-Bar can work with various storage managers that also use XBSA.

Administering
In addition to administering the database server, you can tune performance, replicate data, and archive data.
- System administration
  These topics contain concepts, procedures, and reference information for database and database server administrators to use for managing and tuning HCL Informix® database servers.
- Backup and Restore Guide
  The Informix® Backup and Restore Guide describes how to use the Informix ON-Bar and ontape utilities to back up and restore database server data. These utilities enable you to recover your databases after data is lost or becomes corrupted due to hardware or software failure or accident.
  - Overview of backup and restore
    These topics provide an overview of backup and restore concepts. They also provide information about planning for backup and restore operations.
  - ON-Bar backup and restore system
    - Overview of the ON-Bar backup and restore system
      ON-Bar consists of various components and it works with a storage manager to back up and restore data.
      - ON-Bar components
        ON-Bar components include a command-line utility, catalog tables, an activity log, and an emergency boot file. You use ON-Bar with a storage manager and the XBSA shared library for the storage manager.
        Backup Services API (XBSA)
        ON-Bar and the storage manager communicate through the Backup Services Application Programming Interface (XBSA), which enables the storage manager to manage media for the database server. By using an open-system interface to the storage manager, ON-Bar can work with various storage managers that also use XBSA.
        ON-Bar catalog tables
        ON-Bar uses the catalog tables in the sysutils database to track backup and restore operations. The onsmsync utility uses other catalog tables to track its operations.
        ixbar file: ON-Bar emergency boot file
        The emergency boot file is automatically updated after every backup. It contains the information that ON-Bar needs to perform a cold restore.
        bar_act.log file: ON-Bar activity log
        ON-Bar writes informational, progress, warning, error, and debugging messages to the ON-Bar activity log, bar_act.log.
        ON-Bar script
        The ON-Bar utility includes a shell script on UNIX™ and a batch script on Windows™ for customizing backup and restore operations.
    - Configure the storage manager and ON-Bar
      The topics in this section provide the information that you need to plan and to set up ON-Bar with a storage manager.
    - Back up with ON-Bar
      You can use the ON-Bar utility to back up and verify storage spaces (dbspaces, blobspaces, and sbspaces) and logical-log files.
    - Restore data with ON-Bar
      You can use the ON-Bar utility to restore data that was backed up by the ON-Bar utility.
    - External backup and restore
    - Customize and maintain ON-Bar
    - ON-Bar catalog tables
      These topics describe the ON-Bar tables that are stored in the sysutils database.
    - ON-Bar messages and return codes
      ON-Bar prints informational, progress, warning, and error messages to the ON-Bar activity log file. ON-Bar return codes indicate the status of the command.
  - ontape backup and restore system
  - Backup and restore a Remote Secondary Server(RSS)
  - Integrated Backup Encryption
    These topics provide information about Integrated Backup Encryption.
  - Informix® Primary Storage Manager
    The Informix® Primary Storage Manager manages storage for ON-Bar backup and restore operations, including parallel backups, that use file devices (disks).
  - archecker table level restore utility
  - Backup and restore configuration parameter reference
  - Cloud Backup
    These topics provide information about storing and retrieving the backups directly to the ecosystem of selected cloud providers, namely Amazon S3 and Softlayer Object Storage.
  - Appendixes
- Enterprise Replication
  The HCL® Informix® Enterprise Replication Guide describes the concepts of data replication using Informix Enterprise Replication, including how to design your replication system, as well as administer and manage data replication throughout your enterprise.

Backup Services API (XBSA)

ON-Bar and the storage manager communicate through the Backup Services Application Programming Interface (XBSA), which enables the storage manager to manage media for the database server. By using an open-system interface to the storage manager, ON-Bar can work with various storage managers that also use XBSA.

Each storage manager develops and distributes a unique version of the XBSA shared library. You must use the version of the XBSA shared library provided with the storage manager. For example, if you use Informix® Primary Storage Manager, you must also use the XBSA shared library provided with ON-Bar. ON-Bar and the XBSA shared library must be compiled the same way (32-bit or 64-bit).

ON-Bar uses XBSA to exchange the following types of information with a storage manager:

Control data: ON-Bar exchanges control data with a storage manager to verify that ON-Bar and XBSA are compatible, to ensure that objects are restored in the correct order to the correct instance of the database server, and to track the history of backup objects.
Backup or restore data: During backups and restores, ON-Bar and the storage manager use XBSA to exchange data from specified storage spaces or logical-log files.

ON-Bar uses XBSA transactions to ensure data consistency. All operations included in a transaction are treated as a unit. All operations within a transaction must succeed for objects transferred to the storage manager to be restorable.