During search400's online event "Protect yourself from disaster: Backup essentials" with Tom Huntington from Help/Systems Inc., we received several questions from attendees that we didn't have time to address during the broadcast. Tom was able to answer some of those questions offline, and we've posted them here.
Question: Can I restore an individual Physical files from a full system save or do I have to restore the whole library?
Answer: You can restore individual files from a whole library SAVLIB command.
Question: Does option 21 save all directory info?
Answer: Yes
Question: If you are using BRMS for complete system backups is it necessary to use the SAV command?
Answer: No
Question: How can you automate a SAVSYS?
Answer: You will want to look into a product like Robot/SAVE that has built-in Restricted State Automation or write your own CLP to do this.
Question: Using the save while active option, what effect does that have on restoring a library or a system?
A: Save while active does have some restore issues if you used SYSDFN as your method. If you have a very integrated database, you may find some objects are out of sync. Like any new feature, you should test your restore after using it. There is a chapter in Backup and Recovery on save while active, and it does cover this out-of-sync condition that can happen.
Question: When doing a save of qusrsys, (save while active) the following message has sometimes appeared: "Save-while-active request required commit or rollback for job 150755/qsys/qvpssrv." Do you know what it means?
Answer: My guess is that you are saving with the save while active parameter equal to *SYSDFN. Try *LIB on qusrsys.
Question: We update our Test AS/400 (9406 170) periodically with data from out Production AS/400 (9406 720). When creating the tape, should we be saving access paths with our Production data backups?
Answer: Yes, it will speed up the restore of the data on the test box.
Question: The contents of data q's, job q's, report output are not saved. What can we do to ensure that they do get saved and can be restored whenever required?
Answer: This is an ugly question. You either need to write a CLP to copy these entries into something like a database file or you need to buy utility software to handle this. My biggest concerns are with spool files on output queues. There are a lot of solutions in this area. We have a product Robot/REPORTS.
Question: When using an IBM Ultrium Tape Drive, should compression or compaction be used to get the most amount of data on a tape? What values should be used on the savobj command?
Answer: Use data compaction for both the SAVLIB, SAVOBJ and SAVCHOBJ commands.
Question: We do not endsbs to save qusrsys, and thus save while active. Would there be any problem if one has to restore this library in case of a crash? I see from the job log that some journals are not saved.
Answer: More than likely you will have some problems bringing up some of your IBM applications that you depend on. It may be different for each IBM product. Do you ever do a SAVLIB *NONSYS. If so, you get this library in its entirety. I would start with this on the restore and then apply the changes from the savchobj command.
Question: When using the SAV command in restricted state over directory /QOPENSYS/QIBM/PRODDATA I always get the error 'server can't be saved'. Is this normal?
Answer: Your problem is that you need to end the Domino server before going into restricted state. ENDDOMSRV, I believe, is the command you need.
Question: When will we be able to run concurrent saves to two or more devices?
Answer: You can already do concurrent saves to two or more devices. I think what you are really looking for is parallel saves. You can do this today, but it requires APIs or a purchased product.
