System information

Red Book for AIX Rel. 7.0 and 8.0

Backup Tape Maintenance Overview

Included in your system hardware is a tape drive for making backups of your operating system

and the Eclipse database.

In addition to making tape backups of the operating system and the database, the system

administrator is also responsible for purchasing new tapes and cleaning the tape drives.

Database Backup Recommendations

For database backups, we make the following recommendations:

• Order a one-month supply of backup tapes and rotate the tapes according to a backup

schedule. Have one tape for each day of the month for which you are backing up the

database.

• Store your backup tapes OFF SITE. In the event of a disaster, such as a fire or flood, you

will have a data backup from which to restore the system.

• At the end of each month, archive a tape by removing it from the rotation and storing it in

a secure location. Take the oldest tape our of the rotation and attach a label, such as

January '03 Archive. Replace the archived tape with a new tape that is rotated into the

backup schedule.

• Keep a calendar for the tapes and write the tape number on the day it was recorded. In the

event that you need to restore a file from Wednesday two weeks ago, the calendar will

tell you which tape from which to do the restore.

• Replace your tapes once a year.

Operating System Backup Recommendations

For operating system backups, we make the following recommendations:

• Back up the operating system once a month OR whenever hardware changes occur.

• Keep three tapes in rotation for operating system backups.

• Tape 1 – Keep the most recent backup tape ON SITE.

• Tape 2 – Store the second most recent tape OFF SITE, so you can restore the operating

system in the event of a disaster, such as fire or flood.

• Tape 3 – Use the third most recent tape for your next backup. Store the tape off site until

the time you are ready to make the backup.

• Replace your tapes once a year.