RE: Used Backup Tape to Re-Load??

[Carolyn Wilson <c_wilson@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Carol,

We had to do this a few times in our early days (1994-1995) with innopac,
due to hard disk crashes on our Sun machine. Fortunately nothing since.

We found that the full restore worked well - after the hardware was fixed,
Innovative just told us when to insert the tape and did everything else.
However we found that some information from partials had not been restored
(as it wasn't saved). My memory is a little fuzzy, but I believe it was to
do with financial data. I'm not sure if that has changed in recent years.
Certainly all the database updates and loan transactions were fine from the
partials.

The time involved will depend on the size of your database. There were some
occasions that Innovative did a partial restore, and just pulled back some
files and some data, but the times the disks failed, it was everything.

Just some things we learned from our experiences - 

The first time, our computing centre staff were very carefully keeping the
backup tapes off site - in a locked location elsewhere on campus. We lost a
full day (time zones make a difference) trying to locate the only person who
knew where the key was (he was on leave). Big mistake.

There was some indecision about what was happening with the system when the
disk was failing. By the time we had enough information for us to decide to
stop processing, we could no longer re-create the transactions since the
last partial the night before, as returned books etc had been reshelved. If
we had this situation again, we would make a decision to stop processing
much sooner, and make sure we were in a position to retrieve as many items
as possible to allow us to recreate the days transactions. We would probably
process returns through PC Circ, just to make sure, before sending them back
to the shelves, even if they had already been checked in. 

Oh, and we always verify the tapes. 

Hope that helps

Regards

Carolyn Wilson
Library IT Coordinator
Murdoch University
Murdoch WA 6150
ph: 9360 6273
c.wilson@xxxxxxxxxx <mailto:c.wilson@xxxxxxxxxx> 


-----Original Message-----
From: Carol Eyler [mailto:ceyler@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, 3 October 2001 5:24 AM
To: innopac@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Used Backup Tape to Re-Load??


I am interested in hearing from III libraries that have successfully used 
your backup tape/s to restore your system.  What happened?  How smooth was 
the re-load process?  How long did it take to be back in business?

This question was prompted by some planning we're doing and a question from 
a computer specialist asking, "How do you know if your backup tapes would 
work if you needed them?"  We do full backups religiously Mon-Fri.  But I 
had to admit that I didn't know the answer to his question, and didn't know 
if there was any way to be sure the tapes would work in advance of a 
problem.  So, I'll sleep better after hearing that some of you have 
actually done this.

Please respond to me directly, not to the list.  Thanks.
====================================================
Carol E. Eyler                ceyler@xxxxxxxxxx
Head of Technical Services
Carleton College Library      507-646-4268 (voice)
One North College St.
Northfield, MN  55057         507-646-4087 (fax)
====================================================
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