Informix

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  • 1.  Rubrik Anyone

    Posted Tue July 27, 2021 02:56 PM

    I hope I am not breaking any IBM rule asking this question but we are evaluating Rubrik as a replacement for TSM. I would appreciate any insight from anyone involved in that process. From what I saw, I am not sure it is the right tool for Informix yet or even for DB2.
    Thanks
    Walter

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    Walter Milan
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    #Informix


  • 2.  RE: Rubrik Anyone

    Posted Tue July 27, 2021 04:05 PM
    It is not something that is known to Informix development I would venture. Use the Informix Primary Storage Manager, which has an unlimited number of threads to backup dbspaces in parallel. It is free and comes with the product. Works with onbar but not ontape as ontape does not need a storage manager. Fully in support.
     
    Scott Pickett
    IBM Informix WW Technical Sales
    IBM Informix WW Cloud Technical Sales
    IBM Informix WW Cloud Technical Sales ICIAE
    IBM Informix WW Informix Warehouse Accelerator Sales
    Boston, Massachusetts USA
    spickett@us.ibm.com
    617-899-7549
    33 Years Informix User
     
    The current Informix Roadshow presentations are here:
     
     
     



    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Rubrik Anyone

    Posted Tue July 27, 2021 06:01 PM
    Rubrik doesn't have a real API for Informix but you can use the managed volume option.  As Scott mentioned, you will need to use Informix PSM and write to NFS.  One option would be to embed your backup script with API calls to mount the managed volume and then unmount it, or you could simply write to NFS directly using Informix PSM and let Rubrik backup the managed volume using their standard file system backup.  There is the problem that the PSM catalog does not correlate to a Rubrik catalog.  You would have to export the PSM catalog and let Rubrik back it up as well.  If a restore is needed, you'd need to restore the PSM catalog and import it.

    Hugo Tellez

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    Hugo Tellez
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Rubrik Anyone

    Posted Thu July 29, 2021 06:55 AM
    We are adopting Rubrik for another RDBMS we support where it offers an API.

    The PSM/onbar, NFS and Rubrik combination offered by Hugo is interesting.

    With API support, Rubrik has the potential to offer much faster restores than are possible with a level 0 onbar restore. I am not sure you would see this benefit if Rubrik is actually restoring to a filesystem presented by NFS which then needs a PSM/onbar restore.

    It's perhaps worth evaluating which backup solution vendors directly support Informix. Most sell a complete storage solution.
    * Veritas Netbackup, although development ceased in 2013 and the latest GUI manager does not support Informix.
    * Commvault, don't know much about this one.
    * Tivoli.
    * PSM of course.

    Any others?

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    Benjamin Thompson
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Rubrik Anyone

    Posted Thu July 29, 2021 07:01 AM

    Dell EMC NetWorker ?

     

    Regards Rainer

     

     

     




    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Rubrik Anyone

    IBM Champion
    Posted Thu July 29, 2021 01:23 PM

    Hi,

    Veritas Netbackup is still under development:

    https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/downloads/detail.REL283803

    Release date: 2021-06-07

    https://www.veritas.com/protection/netbackup/whats-new

    Key Features in NetBackup 9.0 – GA Release: January 4, 2021

    Regards,
    David.


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    David Williams
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Rubrik Anyone

    Posted Fri July 30, 2021 09:58 AM
    Sorry if my post was unclear and maybe misleading. I was referring only to the Informix component, not the whole Netbackup product.

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    Benjamin Thompson
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    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Rubrik Anyone

    Posted Fri July 30, 2021 10:34 AM
    I have had the chance to migrate to Rubrik as a backup solution and found using PSM with local storage to be easy. The overall setup was easy to understand and didn't require the DBA to know the backup solution. In the end, we got it down to only a few pages if/then documentation to cover even the worse case recovers we could dream up.

    Before supporting more than one backup solution, it would be best to explore what a PSM process would look like (I believe Tom Bebee has a good PSM Webcast). I have seen Informix deployments move to use PSM even when an API is available to avoid storage manager issues. Using PSM with local or NFS storage allows the DBA to drop the backup in a folder and move on. With that said, do your other DB's teams want to deal with an API call? For example, many of the MS SQL teams I have worked with would prefer to use a share with folders for backups as they are easier to see what is available and restore much quicker. Each method has its own pro/con and may make it easier to have your teams all on the same page.

    It's been a few years since I last checked in on the Rubrik Informix API, at which time it was on the roadmap for release in 2020. Worth asking the rep to understand where it is on the roadmap, if at all.

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    Eric Rowell
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    Original Message