Using the Operations Navigator Backup Utility Craig Pelkie Bits & Bytes Programming, Inc. craig@web400.com
Edition OPSNAVBACKUP_20020219 Published by Bits & Bytes Programming, Inc. Valley Center, CA 92082 craig@web400.com Copyright 2002, Craig Pelkie. All Rights Reserved You are allowed to print copies of this document for your own personal use and for the use of others in your company or organization. Otherwise, no part of this document or any accompanying computer source code may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or data retrieval system, without the prior written permission of Craig Pelkie, who is the author of the document and the computer source code. All computer source code distributed with this document, either on diskettes, CD-ROM, or available for downloading from sources such as the Internet is Copyright 2002 Craig Pelkie, All Rights Reserved. The source code is for use in computer programs that you develop for internal use within your company, or for use within programs that you develop for the use of your clients. No part of the computer source code distributed with this document shall be reproduced in source code format, either printed or in electronic format, by you or by others who you allow to have access to the source code. You shall not cause the source code to be stored on any information retrieval system, such as the Internet. You shall not develop any written articles, books, seminar materials, or other presentations that include the source code provided on the diskettes accompanying this document or within the document itself. For any questions regarding your rights and responsibilities using the computer source code distributed with this document, contact Craig Pelkie, Bits & Bytes Programming, Inc., who is the owner of the source code. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY AND DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY No representation is made that any of the techniques, programs, computer source code, commands, or configurations described and depicted in this document and on the computer source code accompanying this document are error-free and suitable for any application that you may develop. Craig Pelkie makes no warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, including the warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, with regard to the information, examples, and computer source code presented in this document and on the accompanying diskettes. Everything provided in this document and on the accompanying computer source code, if any, is provided as is. Craig Pelkie shall not be liable in any event for incidental or consequential damages or any other claims, pursuant to your use of any of the techniques presented in this document, or your use of the computer source code, even if Craig Pelkie has been advised of the possibility of such damages. You are responsible for testing any and all programs, configurations, commands, and procedures described in this document prior to using the programs, configurations, commands, and procedures with important user data. You must ensure that adequate and sufficient backup of important user data is available, in the event that recovery of the important user data is required.
The AS/400 Operations Navigator includes a backup utility. You can use the utility to configure scheduled backups to be run on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. For each type of backup, you can: Define the backup schedule Select the system objects to be saved Specify the save devices and media The advantages of using AS/400 Operations Navigator backup are: Very quick to configure Easy to review lists of objects that are being saved or not saved Provides built-in media rotation capabilities Getting to the Backup Policies To get to the Backup Policies program, expand the Backup branch in AS/400 Operations Navigator, then click the Policies item. The three backup types (daily, weekly, monthly) are shown in the right-side frame, as shown in Figure 1. To work with a backup policy, right-click on its name and select the Properties item from the pop-up menu. Figure 1: Go to the Backup, Policies branch in the AS/400 Operations Navigator to work with the backup program. The Properties Dialog Each of the backup types is configured using the Properties dialog, as shown in Figure 2. The General tab is used to add or remove the backup type from the schedule and to control the sending of a notification message to the system operator. By default, none of the backup types are enabled, even though they are supplied with default schedules. BACKUP01 1
BACKUP02 Figure 2: The General tab is used to indicate if you are on the schedule, and to send a notification message to the system operator. Selecting Objects for Backup The What tab, shown in Figure 3, is used to specify the objects on your system that are to be backed up. The ease-of-use of the Backup program is readily apparent using the Browse options for libraries (Figure 4) and Folders (Figure 5). Using the Browse dialogs, you can simply click to select the libraries and folders that are to be saved. You can also specify that user directories, security data and configuration data are to be saved. Finally, you specify whether you want to save all data or just changed data, and if a detailed report of objects that are saved is to be printed. 2
Figure 3: The What tab is used to indicate what objects on the AS/400 system will be saved. BACKUP03 Figure 4: The Browse Libraries dialog is used to select libraries to be saved for the daily, weekly and monthly backups. BACKUP04 3
Figure 5: The Browse Folders dialog is used to select folders to be saved for the daily, weekly and monthly backups. BACKUP05 4
Scheduling Backups You specify the backup schedule on the When tab (Figure 6). The default settings are shown in the figure. You can change schedules for the three backup types on this panel and set the starting time for the backup, using a 24-hour time format. Figure 6: The When tab is used to specify the scheduled days and start times for each type of backup. BACKUP06 5
Where to Backup and Media Finally, you specify where the backup is to be performed, in terms of the tape drive to use, and the tape set to use (Figure 7). By default, the backup program suggests three different daily tape sets, with tape labels DAYA, DAYB and DAYC. Those sets are rotated in the daily backup, so you will always have the previous day s tape set available if you adopt the suggested rotation schedule. You can add your own tape sets by specifying a four character ID for the set. As an alternative, you can indicate that the currently mounted tape is to be used, in which case the Backup program ignores the tape label identifier. Finally, you can specify that the tapes are to be erased before backing up to them. Figure 7: The Where tab is used to indicate the tape devices to be used for the backup and the tape sets to be used. Summary BACKUP07 There are many sites where this utility will be useful, for example, sites that do not have a history of using the AS/400, and aren t particularly interested in learning the OS/400 commands. The Backup Utility is especially useful for its ability to easily save objects in the IFS. The Backup program makes it as easy as possible to be sure that you are saving everything that is important in your libraries and the IFS. 6