We do not. I can say since moving to a JFS type filesystem, we've not had a 
problem even when the power was pulled on a couple occasions by loss of dual 
Entergy power feeds and simultaneous UPS rooms failing. And those times I have 
restored files (usually to an alternate location for comparison purposes), I've 
always been able to read the files I've needed without a problem.  I was trying 
to not get into that discussion yet again... I was only speaking to the 
filesystem level and not the database. Using a snapshot results in no 
difference from a filesystem standpoint as breaking a mirror and mounting it 
under an alternate mountpoint to the backup itself. The difference is 1) I 
don't ever break a mirror 2) don't require a 3rd disk set (already run 26 
spindles now, don't need to push it to 39) and 3) my setup/teardown times for 
backups decreased to seconds/a few minutes respectively and 4) I'm able to run 
4 full system backups daily without the users ever noticing. But whatever your 
situation calls for at the database level as opposed to the filesystem is for 
you to decide. Your situation might be different but I've never had a problem 
getting data out of the backups. 
 


>>> "Baakkonen, Rodney A (Rod)      46K" <[email protected]> 4/28/2010 
>>> 1:14 PM >>>
Do you do a dbpause at all during this snapshot process? 

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] 
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Robert Porter
Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2010 1:09 PM
To: U2 Users List
Subject: Re: [U2] Universe and stripped drives

Many 'nix systems not longer require breaking mirrors for backups... We
haven't broken a mirror for backups since the late 90s.  HP-UX and Linux
for example. A MUCH better option is using logical volumes (and yes, you
can still mirror and stripe) as well and use filesystem snapshots to
backup. A snapshot takes what the filesystem looks like at the moment of
creation and mounts it to another mount point. All writes occur to an
alternate disk set, which  any active application sees under the
original mount point. When undoing the snapshot, all the writes are
applied in order to the filesystem. The process of creating usually
takes seconds, and if the users  see it at all, it will appear as a
slight pause. Undoing it depends on the volume of writes pending,
usually seconds to minutes, but regardless will likely be MUCH less than
rebuilding the mirror. And instead of needing a while 3rd set of drives,
you only need enough space to hold the pending writes for the length of
the backup. And they can live on the same set of drives of separate
drives if you prefer.



Robert F. Porter, MCSE, CCNA, ZCE
Lead Sr. Programmer / Analyst
Laboratory Information Services
Ochsner Health System



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>>> "Dave Laansma" <[email protected]> 4/28/2010 12:16 PM >>>
My opinion is to stripe all your data over as many drives as possible.

Regarding mirroring, I would suggest a third mirror.

The third mirror can be broken anytime during the day and used for
backup, then 're-sync'd.'

This configuration provides for minimum data loss due to (the number one
cause of data loss) disk failure.

Drives are cheap.  Mirror up!

Sincerely,
David Laansma
IT Manager
Hubbard Supply Co.
Direct: 810-342-7143
Office: 810-234-8681
Fax: 810-234-6142
www.hubbardsupply.com 
"Delivering Products, Services and Innovative Solutions"


-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] 
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of George Gallen
Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2010 12:47 PM
To: U2 Users List
Subject: [U2] Universe and stripped drives

We are in the process of upgrading our system.

When we setup our current system, it was suggested we strip our data
drives (5) into one,
instead of having 5 separate drives, so it could pull more data at once.

The new system will have 6 drives available for striping

We were going to have 6 drives striped into one, which would be
partitioned into our data areas
the thought being it would be faster disk access if it's pulling from
all 6 drives at once.
BUT...all of the partitions are on that one striped drive.

Would it be better to have (2) sets of 3 drives striped into one, and
setup the two most used
accounts on each of those drives, so now it's only pulling data from 3
drives, but there could
be less competition between the two accounts, since they are pulling
from separate drives?

Anyone played with this at all?

FYI, each drive is mirrored as well, so if there is a drive failure,
data loss is protected,
if there was a drive failure on both the main and mirror (same drive)
then with the
6 drive strip, we stand to potentially lose more data, than if there
were 2 sets of 3 striped.
But...since we have full daily backups, and potentially, considering a
second backup during
the day, the amount of data loss would be minimal....so I'm putting that
off the table for
now in determining whether to go with a 3 or 6 stripe.


George Gallen
Senior Programmer/Analyst
Accounting/Data Division, EDI Administrator
[email protected] 
ph:856.848.9005 Ext 220
The Wyanoke Group
http://www.wyanokegroup.com 



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