Performing an online backup

Performing an online backup involves ensuring that all database activity is temporarily suspended, and then capturing a snapshot of all related data sets.

Before you begin

Important: Before you deploy an online backup solution into a production environment, ensure that you have met the online backup requirements as described in Required online backup technologies, and validate the online backup and recovery process to detect any data consistency issues and ensure that the process meets your business needs.
Before performing an online backup:
  • Identify all of the all database logical unit numbers (LUNs), file system NAS volumes, and applicable fixed content devices that must be included in the snapshot. If necessary, consult with your database administrator.
  • Ensure that the following services are stopped or disabled:
    • If OLAP integration is enabled for a Case Analyzer store, stop the Case Analyzer SSAS connector service on the server where the Case Analyzer SSAS connector is installed.
    • If IBM® Content Search Services (CSS) is enabled for the object store, stop the CSS servers. For more information, see Starting and stopping IBM Content Search Services

Procedure

To perform an online backup:

  1. Suspend writes to all databases.

    For Db2® databases, use the SET WRITE SUSPEND command during online backups. For more information about this command, see the SET WRITE command topic in the DB2® documentation. Consult with your database vendor for an equivalent write suspension feature if you use Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server instead of DB2 for your FileNet® P8 database.

  2. Make a snapshot of all database LUNs, file system NAS volumes, and applicable fixed content devices for all FileNet P8 components.

    For more information, see the documentation that is provided with your snapshot utility software.

    Important:
    • The snapshots must complete within a matter of seconds, or else the FileNet P8 applications and server processes throw exceptions as a result of transaction committal timeouts. Ensure that the selected underlying snapshot technologies can accomplish the snapshot within the acceptable time frame.
    • All snapshots must be taken simultaneously (that is, within a maximum of a matter of seconds). You cannot take snapshots in a sequential fashion.
  3. Resume writes to all databases.

What to do next

Start or enable the following services:
  • If OLAP integration is enabled for a Case Analyzer store, start the Case Analyzer SSAS connector service.
  • If CSS is enabled for the object store, start the CSS servers.
Important: Periodically perform a full offline backup as protection against a problem with restoring from a flawed online backup. A recent offline backup provides a fallback option if more recent online backups turn out to be unusable for restoring due to irreconcilable data inconsistencies or any other problem. A full offline backup is the safest way to back up and restore a FileNet P8 system's data. Taking FileNet P8 offline stops all user activity, freezing the data in a consistent state, guaranteeing consistency across all the FileNet P8 data sets that are backed up while FileNet P8 is offline.