RE: COBOL Transactions?
- From: "Main, Kerry" <Kerry.Main@xxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2007 21:25:39 +0000
-----Original Message-----
From: John Wallace [mailto:johnwallace4@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: September 2, 2007 6:26 PM
To: Info-VAX@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: COBOL Transactions?
"Main, Kerry" <Kerry.Main@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:C72D63EB292C9E49AED23F705C61957BDE935D97FC@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
p.net...
<snip>
For greater HA, install local HW RAID or host based volume shadowing
for all
disks. This
might be a higher charge option for SMB's that do not want to worry
about
tapes, and want
to minimize any dealing with any server issues etc
<snip>
I'm a bit late to this particlar party, but doesn't there seem to be
some
opportunity for confusion here between the not-all-that-related topics
of
backups vs RAID/data availability? Backups+journals serve quite
different
purposes than RAID. IE what happens when human error or application
error
causes the data on disk to be readable but invalid ? A RAID array on
its own
gives you a highly available but worthless set of data. Proper
procedures
based on tape-style backups (and hopefully some kind of journalling)
hopefully provide a copy of the "last known good" data (as at the most
recent backup/snapshot) and combined with suitable journalling can be
quite
handy in restoring the data to a usable state. Obviously tape-style
backups
don't actually have to go to tape either these days; disk (real or USB)
may
be equally useful.
The end user might not be the one to do the restore in the case of a
data
corruption, but without a proper backup how is that restore going to be
possible at all? It's been my experience that user/application error
is at
least as likely as hardware failure, but maybe I've just been lucky
with
hardware.
Regards
John
John,
I was not promoting not doing backups, but rather still doing backups to a designated
Maint disk locally with regular off-site backups copied to a remote site, then a DVD/tape
is created & shipped to a company that handles media archiving. This then provides the
capability for someone remotely to restore the files from the online disk backups on the
"maint" disk and also do a DR restore if required.
To ensure a lights-out environment as much as possible, one option is to build HA Features
using either HBVS or HW RAID into the overall solution.
The issue with tapes locally in any environment where there are only secretaries or office
admin staff is that they are constantly forgetting to change tapes or put the wrong one in
or the person responsible goes on vacation and hence the backup process is constantly at
risk. Even SMB customers can no longer afford to have a DC fire or DB corruption or
accidental critical file deletion where they can not recover. Hence, even if it does cost
a bit more (additional fee perhaps?), imho, a SMB solution should be considering these
"lights-out" options.
Regards
Kerry Main
Senior Consultant
HP Services Canada
Voice: 613-592-4660
Fax: 613-591-4477
kerryDOTmainAThpDOTcom
(remove the DOT's and AT)
OpenVMS - the secure, multi-site OS that just works.
.
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