UniVerse Real Time backup for AIX

Do you run UniVerse on an AIX based IBM system and wish you could do daytime backups without a lot of down time and expense? Would you like to limit your exposure to system failure and data loss with only "last night's backup"? Well you can!

What do you need to do this? Only a reasonably recent copy of AIX and UniVerse, and enough disk space to have a second copy of your database. With this procedure you can backup you live data to a "copy", then move that copy to a backup system or tape. The available disk space should be on a separate physical disk than your primary data, but still on the same system.

In most cases the entire procedure to copy your live data takes only a few minutes, but could be more if you have a large database and an active system. This procedure is more suited to smaller environments, with a couple of hundred users and a reasonable amount of updating. If you run an airline reservations system this is not for you! We are offering an economical backup procedure to those sites without a big budget, and a few minutes to spare, one or more times a day.

How does it work? This procedure suspends UniVerse, copies only the changes to your database to a local (fast) backup copy, resumes UniVerse, and then moves the backup copy to a backup system if you are using one. The user processing is not interrupted, but users may wait a minute or two for their write transactions to complete while UniVerse is suspended. Some sites choose to automatically send email to users at the start and end of the procedure, others do nothing. We are not proposing disk mirroring, glvm, or any other hard to implement, understand, or manage techniques. Simplicity is the key!

What are we selling? Nothing more than a service to put it all together and make it work for you. However, we can do more if you prefer. That is, provide and install a disk if required, upgrade AIX and/or UniVerse, and help with a backup system if you don't have and want one. We will download and install all required (freeware) software, provide custom scripts, setup cron or other jobs, and document it all so you know what is happening. Yes, we have done this before and it works!

What does it cost? Well all sites are different and it depends on what you need. For example, if you have disk space, and AIX and UniVerse are at recent release, we can do it all from our offices. This might cost you as little as a $1,000. If you need updates and a disk, then we probably need to be on site, and obviously that costs more. The best way to quote your unique circumstances is to talk about what you have and what you need, in a no obligation telephone call.

Pulsar Systems is an IBM authorized Reseller for AIX p5 series hardware and a Rocket Software authorized Reseller for UniVerse, and can assist in installation, configuration, and updates of UniVerse on AIX.

If you would like to get started, or just explore the possibilities, click this email link and let us know how we can help.