Specifications

Overview: read me first 2-37
General restore information
Standard 1.0 System Installation and Modification Guide January 1998
General restore information
Introduction
The purpose of this section is to provide background
information about the disk and tape devices used to back up
and restore Meridian Mail systems.
Note: High-capacity magnetic disks are a central part of a
voice messaging system. These disks can fail; therefore,
backups are essential.
Backups
Backup copies of the system data are fundamental to
restoring the system with as little disruption and data loss as
possible. For this reason, it is important that the system
administrator back up the system on a regular basis.
Meridian Mail backup
devices for non-
shadowed systems
The following backup devices are used for non-shadowed
systems.
Streaming tape drive
Meridian Mail systems feature a streaming tape drive to
allow system and user information to be copied from disk to
one or more quarter-inch tape cartridges. If a disk drive fails,
the system can be restored to a working state by copying the
data back from the tape to a replacement disk. It is also
possible to copy data onto another Meridian Mail system, if
necessary, as in platform migration.
Hard disks
Larger Meridian Mail systems have multiple nodes, each
node having its own disk drive. On these systems, a disk to
disk backup feature is available (when it is enabled). Rather
than copying to tape, the data is copied to one of the other
disks in order to minimize data loss in the event of single disk
failure. This is not a full system backup. For more
information on disk to disk backup, see Chapter 4, “Toggle
disk to disk backup”.
Note: A disk to disk backup reduces the voice message
storage space available. Tape backup copies are used to
restore the system after multiple disk failures.