Performing an online backup involves ensuring that all
database activity is temporarily suspended, and then capturing a snapshot
of all related data sets.
Before you begin
Important: Before you deploy an online backup
solution into a production environment, ensure that you have met the
online backup requirements as described in
Required
online backup technologies, and validate the online backup
and recovery process to detect any data consistency issues and ensure
that the process meets your business needs.
Before performing
an online backup:
- Identify all of the all database logical unit numbers (LUNs),
file system NAS volumes, and applicable fixed content devices that
must be included in the snapshot. If necessary, consult with your
database administrator.
- Ensure that the following services are stopped or disabled:
- If OLAP integration is enabled for a Case Analyzer store, stop the Case Analyzer SSAS connector service
on the server where the Case Analyzer SSAS
connector is installed.
- If publishing is enabled, disable the Rendition Engine connection.
Procedure
To perform an online backup:
- Suspend writes to all databases.
For DB2® databases, use the SET WRITE
SUSPEND command during online backups. For more information about this command, see
the SET WRITE command topic in the DB2 documentation. Consult with your database vendor for an equivalent write suspension
feature if you use Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server
instead of DB2 for your FileNet® P8 database.
- Make a snapshot of all database LUNs, file system NAS volumes,
and applicable fixed content devices for all FileNet P8 components.
For
more information, see the documentation that is provided with your
snapshot utility software.
Important: - The snapshots must complete within a matter of seconds, or else
the FileNet P8 applications
and server processes throw exceptions as a result of transaction committal
timeouts. Ensure that the selected underlying snapshot technologies
can accomplish the snapshot within the acceptable time frame.
- All snapshots must be taken simultaneously (that is, within a
maximum of a matter of seconds). You cannot take snapshots in a sequential
fashion.
- Resume writes to all databases.
What to do next
Start or enable the following services:
- If OLAP integration is enabled for a Case Analyzer store, start the Case Analyzer SSAS connector service.
- If publishing is enabled, enable the Rendition Engine connection.
Important: Periodically perform a full offline
backup as protection against a problem with restoring from a flawed
online backup. A recent offline backup provides a fallback option
if more recent online backups turn out to be unusable for restoring
due to irreconcilable data inconsistencies or any other problem. A
full offline backup is the safest way to back up and restore a FileNet P8 system's data. Taking FileNet P8 offline stops all user
activity, freezing the data in a consistent state, guaranteeing consistency
across all the FileNet P8 data
sets that are backed up while FileNet P8 is
offline.