Backup and recovery guidelines

The specific backup and recovery procedures that are implemented at your site depend on the FileNet® P8 architecture at your site and your tolerance for downtime.

Use the following guidelines when you implement a backup and recovery strategy for your FileNet P8 data and components. These guidelines apply to both online and offline backups.

• After snapshots are created, the snapshots must be backed up to local or remote backup media. Local media can then be sent or replicated offsite to protect against losing both the backup and the current data in a single mishap.
• A backup must capture all interdependent data in a single snapshot. Because the data processed by various FileNet P8 components are interdependent, you must back up all data within a single FileNet P8 domain at the same time, regardless of the physical location of the data. If, instead, you were to back up interrelated data piecemeal, by performing multiple backups at different times with system operations between the backups, the backed up data would be inconsistent and result in errors in the restored system. The set of interdependent data includes document content, document attributes (referred to as metadata), running workflows and workflow definitions, marking sets, and other objects. Backing up and restoring an individual object store can create conflicts between the restored object store and the current global configuration database that might or might not be resolvable.
• The FileNet P8 components use an LDAP directory service to create and manage user and group accounts; however the directory service is not a part of the FileNet P8 platform. Most likely, it is on a separate and independent backup schedule and can be restored independent of FileNet P8. To eliminate problems that are caused by missing users and groups, back up the directory service database whenever user or group information is modified. FileNet P8 items such as workflows fail to run correctly if the users and groups they reference cannot be found in the directory service. If the directory service is restored, you can use the vwtool environment command to help you reconcile missing users or groups for running workflows.
• For files, you can use any backup utility that preserves the security settings on the files and folders being backed up. For databases, you can use the database backup tool that is provided by the RDBMS vendor or any backup tool to perform database backup.
• If the FileNet P8 system must be available to users on a 24-hour basis, you might decide to implement a fault-tolerant, or failover, architecture. A failover system is not a substitute for performing software backups. Deleted or corrupted files on the master computer will be deleted or corrupted on the backup computer as well.
• Backup does not include a complete server backup unless specifically noted. Because you can reinstall the software for a FileNet P8 component at any time, you do not need to back up the entire server. However, having a complete server backup available can shorten the time that it takes to restore a server.
• If you perform online backups, periodically perform a full offline backup to minimize the risk of any irreconcilable data set inconsistencies that might arise during an online backup.
• If you perform online backups, periodically perform a full offline backup as a fallback in case of irreconcilable data consistency problems in online backups. A full offline backup is the safest way to back up and restore a FileNet P8 system's data and maintain data consistency.
• You can restore a backup only when the system is offline.
• If you perform an online backup, you must restore the entire backup set. You cannot restore only a portion of an online backup set.