Home
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
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.
Configure a storage manager
ON-Bar backup and restore operations require a storage manager that integrates with ON-Bar through an XBSA shared library interface.
Determine what storage devices you need
Before backing up, determine what and how many storage devices you need.

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.
    - 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.
      - Configure a storage manager
        ON-Bar backup and restore operations require a storage manager that integrates with ON-Bar through an XBSA shared library interface.
        Determine what storage devices you need
        Before backing up, determine what and how many storage devices you need.
        Storage-manager definitions in the sm_versions file
        Most storage managers must have an entry in the sm_versions file.
        Non-IBM storage managers
        ON-Bar supports some third-party storage managers that can manage stackers, robots, and jukeboxes and simple tape and disk devices.
        Configuring a third-party storage manager
        Storage managers have slightly different installation and configuration requirements. If you use a third-party storage manager, make sure that you follow the manufacturer instructions carefully. If you have difficulty with the storage-manager installation and configuration, contact the manufacturer directly.
        Configuring Spectrum Protect
        To use Spectrum Protect with Informix® databases, you must install and configure the Spectrum Protect client on your database server computer and Spectrum Protect on your storage computer.
        Backup to Commvault storage manager using ON-Bar
        You can use ON-Bar to back up and restore data to or from the Commvault storage manager. User is responsible for terms and any charges associated with your use of the Commvault storage manager.
        Specifying the location of the XBSA Library
        By default, ON-Bar looks for the XBSA shared library in $INFORMIXDIR/lib/ibsad001.s[ol] on UNIX™. To specify a different name or location of the XBSA shared library, use the BAR_BSALIB_PATH configuration parameter.
      - Validating your storage manager
        When you convert or revert the Informix® database server, the storage manager that you used on the old version might not be validated for the version that you are migrating to. Verify that the storage-manager vendor successfully completed the Informix validation process for the database server version and platform.
      - Configuring ON-Bar
      - Verifying the configuration of ON-Bar and your storage manager
        Before you begin using ON-Bar and your storage manager, make sure that ON-Bar and your storage manager are set up correctly.
      - Files that ON-Bar and storage managers use
        ON-Bar, Informix® Primary Storage Manager, and Spectrum Protect use particular files in your installation.
    - 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.

Determine what storage devices you need

Before backing up, determine what and how many storage devices you need.

Ask the following interrelated questions to determine what storage devices you need. For example, the speed and type of storage devices partly determine the number of storage devices that you need.

What type of storage devices do you need?
The transaction volume and the size of your database are major factors in determining the type of storage devices that you need.
What is the availability requirement for each device?
Is it important for your storage devices to allow random and sequential access? If so, you cannot use tape storage devices.
How many storage devices do you need?
The number of storage devices that you need depends on the storage devices you have, how much transaction activity occurs on the database server, how fast throughput is, how much time you can allow for backups, and other similar factors.