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.