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Things to Consider when Creating and Configuring Informix Subclients
The following table shows subclient creation and configuration details specific to the Informix agent.
Agent |
Type of Data | Default Subclient created during install of the Agent | Supports Default Subclient | Supports User Defined Subclient | Contents of the default subclient when user-defined subclient is present | Other Types of subclients supported by the Agent | Notes |
Informix iDataAgent | database, subsets, log files | No | Yes | Yes | database objects not assigned to other subclients, unless otherwise configured* | None |
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Before you back up data, you must define the data that you want to back up and how this data should be backed up. This is done by creating one or more subclients for the database that you are backing up. For the Informix iDataAgent, a subclient defines:
Depending on your needs, you can create multiple subclients for one or all of the following:
The Informix iDataAgent is designed to back up and restore Informix databases, which include Informix database files along with the associated logical log files, emergency boot files (ixbar), and ONCONFIG files. After you install an Informix iDataAgent, a default subclient is created by the system only after you first configure an Informix instance from the CommCell Console. Since each Informix instance is designed to include one or more Informix databases, the default subclient that is created for an instance will include all the Informix databases for that instance. However, you can use the CommCell Console to create user-defined subclients to distribute some of the database content by configuring the Subclient Properties (Content) tab. Any content that you do not distribute to the user-defined subclients will remain in the default subclient.
When you configure subclient content, you click the Subclient Properties (Content) tab for the subclient to view the eligible data for inclusion in the subclient content. You then select an option to include one of the following in the subclient content: entire database, one or more dbspaces (subsets) in the database, logical logs that are filled up as well as the logical logs to which the system is still writing, or only logical logs that are filled up. If you opt to include the entire database in the subclient content, you can select an option to set up the data to be backed up either in parallel mode or serial mode.
If you opt to include just one or more dbspaces (subsets) in the subclient content, you click the appropriate option and then the desired dbspaces to configure the content for the subclient. Once you do this, the subclient content may be displayed as follows:
In this example, inf_10 is the name of the instance, and this instance includes a single database. The database includes five dbspaces, and two of the five table spaces in the database (testdbs1 and testdbs2) have been included in the subclient content.
Also, it is recommended that you create a separate user-defined subclient for Informix log files, and you can select options to include the Emergency Boot File (ixbar) and the ONCONFIG file in the subclient client.
A useful way to distribute subclient content for this iDataAgent is to create separate user-defined sublients for frequently used dbpaces and also for log files. For example, if the testdbs1 and testdbs2 dbspaces shown above undergo frequent changes, you can create a separate subclient for each dspace. For example:
Content:
testdbs1
Content:
testdbs2
It is recommended that you create a separate user-defined subclient for the Informix log files on the client. For example:
Content:
(all the Informix log files)
Distributing the client data using subclients in this way can help improve backup performance by distributing the workload on the client into logical groupings.
Data protection filtering is not applicable for this agent.
Wildcards and regular expressions are not supported for this agent when defining subclient content.
For more information, see Things to Consider when Creating and Configuring Informix Subclients.
Once installed, the agent is configured and is therefore able to manage the data or volumes on the client computer. However, you can change certain aspects of the subclient configuration to manage the data in the manner that best suits your needs.
You can view or change the subclient configuration from the Subclient Properties dialog box. The following information can be configured.
You can enable or disable all operations for this CommCell object and all objects below it. For more information, see Activity Control.
Some database iDataAgents run backups using a system-generated script that is run behind the scenes from a command line. The CommCell Console serves as a front-end user interface for specifying various backup arguments and parameters that are passed to the backup script that is run. Depending on your agent, you can specify, for example, the application-specific Backup Level, whether the backups will be online or offline, as well as buffer and bundle sizes, among other settings. Although the backup arguments/parameters vary among iDataAgents, they all function in a similar manner. These arguments are set at the subclient level from the respective iDataAgent's Subclient Properties dialog box tab.
For step-by-step instructions, see Configure Backup Arguments.
You can set the number of backup streams. For more information, see Streams.
You can define the content of the subclient. Most agents include a configure button that displays a dialog where you can add or modify the data included as subclient content. For step-by-step instructions, see Configure Subclient Content.
Several configurable options to efficiently use available resources for transferring data secured by data protection operations are provided in the subclient. This includes the following:
You can enable or disable the encryption of data for transmission over unsecure networks and for storage on media. For more information, see Data Encryption.
You can view the data paths associated with the primary storage policy copy of the selected storage policy or incremental storage policy. You can also modify the data paths for the subclient including their priority. For additional information, see Configuring Alternate Data Paths for Subclients.
You can add, modify or view Pre/Post processes for the subclient. These are batch files or shell scripts that you can run before or after certain job phases. For more information, see Pre/Post Processes.
You can associate the subclient to a storage policy. For more information, see Storage Policies.
You can rename a user-defined subclient.
When creating and configuring subclients for Informix agents, keep in mind the following considerations:
We recommend that you do not re-configure the content of a default subclient because this would disable its capability to serve as "catch-all" entity for client data. As a result, the likelihood that some data will not get backed up or scanned for archiving would increase.