Concepts that are associated with Data Protection for IBM® Domino® backups
of Domino databases and transaction
logs are provided.
The backup and recovery API in Domino provides the capability to do the following
actions:
- Run full online backups of individual databases.
- Store archives of the transaction log when archival logging is
in effect.
- Domino server transaction
log
- Updates to a logged database are recorded in the Domino server transaction log
so that full database backups are not required as frequently. Changes
to a database since the last full backup can be applied from the transaction
log after the backup is restored from the last full backup. Enabling
transaction logs for all databases on a Domino server is not required, so the backup
process must handle both logged and non-logged databases. Domino allows the active transaction
log to be backed up also.
- Transactions that are recorded in the transaction
log are keyed by a Database Instance Identifier (DBIID), which is
unique for each database on a Domino server.
The DBIID must match that of a restored database for transactions
in the log to be applied to the database. The most common reason for
a DBIID to change is compaction of the database to reduce file size.
When the DBIID changes, a full backup must be taken so that subsequent
updates can be applied to a restored backup of that database. Transactions
that are recorded since the DBIID change cannot be applied to prior
backups of that database because the DBIID does not match. For more
information about DBIID, see the Domino server
documentation.
Types of NSF backup and archive logs
Data Protection for IBM Domino provides
two types of database backups and an archive log function, incremental
and selective.
- Incremental Backup
- An incremental backup provides a conditional backup
function for a full online backup of Domino databases
under the following conditions:
- The database is not excluded in the Tivoli® Storage Manager include-exclude
options file (standard include and exclude processing is supported).
- The database is not logged and was modified since the last active
backup image for that database. Both data and non-data modification
dates are checked. If either is different from the date of the active
backup, the database is backed up.
- When circular logging is used on the Domino server, or when logging is disabled
on the Domino server, transaction
log files are not archived.
- The database is new or newly included in the backup and an active
backup image does not exist on the Tivoli Storage
Manager server.
The incremental command includes a
function that determines when active backup database copies exist
on the Tivoli Storage Manager server that
are deleted from the Domino server
or excluded from backup. If so, they are marked inactive so that automatic
expiration of these backup copies can occur according to defined Tivoli Storage Manager management
class parameters for backup files.
- Selective Backup
- A selective backup unconditionally runs a full online
backup of the specified Domino databases.
It does not run excluded backups that are specified through exclude
statements in the Data Protection for IBM Domino dsm.opt file.
- Archive Log
- An archive log stores filled transaction log files on the Tivoli Storage Manager server so
that space allocated to these files can be reused by the Domino logger. The archivelog command
is available when transaction logging on the Domino server is enabled in archival mode.
Filled transaction log files must be archived frequently enough to
ensure the transaction log never fills completely and stops the Domino server.
Transaction
log files that are stored on the Tivoli Storage Manager server are
automatically restored as needed for a database recovery.
Archived
transaction log files are retained on the Tivoli Storage Manager server when
a database backup exists that needs these log files for a complete
recovery. See Expiration of NSF archived transaction log files for further
details.
Note: Transaction log files are not archived
when circular or linear loop logging is used on the Domino server. If logging is disabled on the Domino Server, log files are
not archived. For more information, see
NSF backup strategy.