Using archives

Archiving provides a method of saving disk space by saving infrequently used objects to media, and then removing them from the disk.

During the archive operation, the disk storage on the system is freed, thus allowing you to store more vital data in that disk space. Therefore, you have the benefit of retaining the data, but without an impact to the storage capacity of your primary disk space. BRMS tracks the information associated with the objects that you archive.

Note: To use archive capabilities within BRMS, you must install the Advanced feature of BRMS (5761-BR1 Option 2).

There are two concepts related to archiving: storage freed objects and dynamic retrieval of those objects.

Storage freed objects: Archiving saves objects, then deletes those objects or just the content of that object. When you archive objects that can be storage freed, you archive the data associated with the object to alternate media, but the object's description remains on the system. This description uses very little space and acts as a placeholder in the event that the object data needs to be retrieved. Only certain objects can have their data storage freed. They include: Database files, source files, stream files, and document library objects (DLOs).
Dynamic retrieval of storage freed objects: Dynamic retrieval of storage freed objects provides a way to access archived objects. When you need to use a storage freed object, such as a database file, BRMS locates and restores that object's data dynamically, using the description stored on the system. See Managing dynamic retrieval of storage freed objects for details on how to use dynamic retrieval.

With BRMS, you can manage archives by creating an archive control group. Unlike backup control groups, archive control groups save objects that are used infrequently, but might need to be accessed for later use if needed. The saved objects are removed from the system. For example, you might have seldom-used customer information stored in a database and you want to free disk space by archiving this data to media. Another difference between backup and archive is the difference between restore and retrieve. In general, objects saved as part of a backup control group are recovered from the save media. Archived objects are retrieved from the media, and then after they are used, can be re-archived back to the media.

Note: Objects that are saved using an archive control group are not included in the system disaster recovery report.