System backup

A backup for the system machine should be made at least once a week (for example, mksysb, tar, cpio). After completing the backup, verify the backed up information is valid by selecting and reading the media and data before storage.

Many backup software applications place locks on the files. This can cause corruption of the recovery database and the SMAT files. It can also panic an engine if an attempt is made to write to a log file that is locked.

In this case, if the exec folder is included in the backup:

  1. Stop the site, including engines and daemons.
  2. If the exec folder is backed up and restored, then messages previously delivered might be placed back into the recovery database. The result is out-of-context messages being delivered to downstream systems.
    It is recommended not to restore the exec folder, or if you do, then reinitialize the recovery database before starting any engines.