Instances - Informix - How To

Topics | How To | Related Topics

Create an Instance

Modify an Instance

Delete an Instance

Select a Storage Policy for Third Party User Commands

Configure Third-party Command Line Operations for Encryption

Change the Home Directory

Change the ONCONFIG File

Change Account for Accessing Databases

Create/Modify an Instance

Before you Begin

• For the Oracle, Oracle RAC or SAP for Oracle iDataAgent, if you have custom SQL settings, you must turn off these settings to ensure that the instance browse works correctly and that the instance status is correctly fetched. To do this, create and edit the cvlogin.sql file with the appropriate contents at ORACLE_HOME/sqlplus/admin. For example, run the following command:

  edit file $ORACLE_HOME/sqlplus/admin/cvlogin.sql

  Then include the following contents in the cvlogin.sql file:

  set heading on;

  set pause off;

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Required Actions

To create/modify an Instance

1. To create an instance, from the CommCell Browser, locate the correct client computer node, and right-click the agent node for which you want the new instance created, click All Tasks, and then click New Instance from the shortcut menu.

   To modify an existing instance, from the CommCell Browser, right-click the instance you want to modify, and then click Properties from the shortcut menu.

2. From the General tab, enter the name (up to 32 characters) for the instance. In addition, provide the required access information for this instance.

   For various iDataAgents, you can add/modify an application/database user account. See the appropriate section as follows in User Accounts and Passwords for more information:

   • DB2 iDataAgent
   • Documentum iDataAgent
   • Informix iDataAgent
   • Microsoft SQL Server iDataAgent
   • Oracle iDataAgents (Oracle, Oracle RAC, SAP for Oracle)
   • Sybase iDataAgent
   • MySQL iDataAgent
   • PostGreSQL iDataAgent
3. If your agent uses the Details tab, enter the required database connect string and other optional parameters.
   • For the Oracle, Oracle RAC and SAP for Oracle iDataAgents, see the Oracle iDataAgents section in User Accounts and Passwords for more information.
4. From the Storage Device tab, select storage policy copies to be used for, as applicable, data backups, command line data backups and log backups. Within these tabs you can click Data Paths to display the details of the data paths associated with the primary storage policy copy of the selected storage policy.
5. If your agent uses the Software Compression tab, and you want to enable software compression for the selected backups, click the tab and select the option appropriate to your environment.
6. If you want to enable data encryption, from the Encryption tab select encryption settings for third-party or RMAN command line backups.
7. Click OK to save the instance.
8. A message advises you to schedule backups for your new instance. It is recommended you elect to set a schedule now. You can also associate this instance with an All Agent Types schedule policy (which is automatically created by the system, or can be a user defined Data Protection schedule policy). If you have already associated a schedule policy at a previous level (Agent, Client, or Client Computer Group) the schedules defined in the Schedule Policy will be automatically applied to the new instance. See Schedule Policy for more information.
   • For agents that offer an OK option, click OK to acknowledge the message. This procedure is now complete.
   • For agents that offer Yes and No options to this message, click No if you don't want to create a backup schedule at this time, and this procedure is complete. If you click Yes, a dialog box prompts you to back up all subclients of this instance.
9. Click Yes. The Backup Options dialog box appears, which allows you to create the necessary schedules.
10. From the Backup Options dialog box, select the type of backup that you want to schedule.
11. If you want to access Advanced Backup Options, click Advanced.
12. After selecting the backup type and any advanced options, click OK. The Schedule Details dialog box appears.
13. From the Schedule Details tab of the Schedule Details dialog box, select the scheduling options that you want to apply, then click OK.

NOTES

• A default subclient is created for the Oracle instance, which includes all the objects in the instance. When you are done with this procedure, open the Subclient Properties dialog box for the default subclient and verify that the Resync Catalog option available in the Backup Arguments tab is selected. This would help you to successfully perform a full system restore in the event of destroyed or damaged client.
• After creating the instance for DB2, you can now create one or more Backup Sets for this instance.

Modify an Instance

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Required Actions

To modify an Instance

1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the instance you want to modify, and then click Properties from the shortcut menu.
2. Click the General tab of the Instance properties box to change the required access information for this instance.
3. If your agent uses the Accounts tab, use this tab to specify the Windows account used by the system. For MySQL iDataAgent, use this tab to specify the MySQL Server user account.
4. If your agent uses the Restore View Names tab, use this tab to enter or modify a list of text patterns for the view through which the system displays a database's data documents when you browse.
5. If your agent has the Security tab, you can view CommCell resource associations to enable or disable user groups that can perform system operations on associated resources.
6. For an Oracle instance, click the Details tab to change the database connect string and other optional parameters.
7. For an Oracle RAC instance, go to the next step. Otherwise, go to Step 12.
8. Click the Details tab, and type or select values for the fields at the bottom of the dialog box as appropriate. For the DB2 DPF instance, to associate a database partition with a different client, click the affected partition in the DB2 Partition Clients field, click Modify, and click from the list in the Edit Directory Share Name Pair dialog box the name of the new client for the partition. Then click OK.
9. Click the Oracle instance (Client/Instance/Status) that you want to modify. Then click Modify.
10. In the Update Instance dialog box, update the desired field values by typing or browsing as appropriate. Then click OK.
11. Repeat the previous two steps for each Oracle instance that you want to modify.
12. From the Storage Device tab(s), select storage policy copies to be used for, as applicable, data backups, command line data backups and log backups. Within these tabs you can click Data Paths to display the details of the data paths associated with the primary storage policy copy of the selected storage policy.

    For the MySQL iDataAgent, select the storage policy for the log backups from the Log Backups tab.

13. If your agent uses the Software Compression tab, and you want to enable software compression for the selected backups, click the tab and select the appropriate option.
14. If you want to enable data encryption, from the Encryption tab select encryption settings for third-party or RMAN command line backups.
15. Click OK to save the configuration changes.
16. A message advises you to schedule backups for your new instance. It is recommended you elect to set a schedule now. If you click No, this procedure is now complete. If you click Yes, a dialog box prompts you to back up all subclients of this instance.
17. Click Yes. The Backup Options dialog box appears, which allows you to create the necessary schedules.
18. From the Backup Options dialog box, select the type of backup that you want to schedule.
19. If you want to access Advanced Backup Options, click Advanced.
20. After selecting the backup type and any advanced options, click OK. The Schedule Details dialog box appears.
21. From the Schedule Details tab of the Schedule Details dialog box, select the scheduling options that you want to apply, then click OK.

Delete an Instance

Before You Begin

• For most agents except Oracle and SQL Server, you cannot delete an instance if there is only one instance present for an agent. To delete the final instance for most agents except the ones identified, you must first remove the agent software from the client computer. For Oracle RAC, which does not involve agent software, you can delete the instance under the RAC pseudo-client.
• When you delete a specific instance positioned in the level below the corresponding agent or pseudo-client in the CommCell Console, the following actions occur:
  • The corresponding backup data for that instance becomes immediately unavailable, thus making it inaccessible for restore purposes. In effect, the backup data is deleted.
  • All child levels contained within the level are deleted in the CommCell Browser.
  • All job schedules and job histories that pertain to any of the levels within the deleted instance are deleted.
• If you delete an Oracle iDataAgent instance included within an Oracle RAC instance (node), the backup data is not deleted, and it is available for restore by another eligible client.
• You cannot delete an instance if it is being backed up. Attempts to delete an instance under such conditions cause the deletion to fail. If a backup is in progress, either wait for the backup to complete or kill the backup job using the Job Manager. Once the backup is no longer in progress, you can delete the instance level.

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Required Actions

To delete an instance positioned in the level below the corresponding agent or pseudo-client

1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the instance that you want to delete, click All Tasks and then click Delete.
2. Click Yes to confirm the deletion. (Clicking No cancels the deletion and retains the node.)
3. Type the requested phrase in the Enter Confirmation Text dialog box and click OK. This should delete the instance.

To delete an Oracle iDataAgent instance included within an Oracle RAC instance (node)

1. Right-click the Oracle RAC instance, click Properties, and click Details.
2. Click the instance that you want to delete within Client/Instance/Status and click Delete.
3. Repeat the previous step for each Oracle iDataAgent instance (except the last one remaining) within the Oracle RAC instance that you want to delete.
4. Click OK. This should delete the Oracle iDataAgent instance(s).

Select a Storage Policy for Third-Party User Commands

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Required Actions

When backing up data through third-party command line functions rather than the CommCell Console, the specific storage policy for the backups of the affected non-Oracle RAC agents is established and maintained through the Creating New Instance screen for the appropriate iDataAgent. For the Oracle RAC iDataAgent, the storage policy is established when you create the associated pseudo-client or when you modify the pseudo-client instance.

To select a storage policy for third-party user commands for non-Oracle RAC agents:

1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the supported server/instance icon, click All Tasks, and then click New Instance.
2. Within the Creating New Instance dialog box, click the Storage Device tab on server/instance properties.
3. From the Command Line Backup tab, select from the list of existing storage policies
4. Click OK to save your settings.

To select a storage policy for third-party user commands for the Oracle RAC iDataAgent:

1. From the CommCell Browser, if you are creating a RAC pseudo-client, right-click Client Computers, click New Client, click RAC Client in the Add New Client dialog box, and then click OK. If you are modifying the pseudo-client instance, right-click the instance and then click Properties.
2. Click Storage Device.
3. From the Command Line Backup tab, select from the list of existing storage policies.
4. Use the other tabs as appropriate to configure the subclient and then click OK to save your settings.

Configure Third-party Command Line Operations for Encryption

Encryption settings made at the instance level for third-party Command Line operations are not related in any way to settings made at the subclient level. Subclient encryption settings are only for data protection and recovery operations run from the CommCell Console.

See Data Encryption - Support for a list of supported products.

Before You Begin

Encryption must be enabled at the client level prior to configuring any instances residing on that client. See Configure the Client for Data Encryption.

Required Capability: Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To configure the instance for encryption of third-party command line operations:

1. From the CommCell Console, right-click the instance and click Properties.
2. From the respective Encryption tab, select an option based on the criteria described in the Encryption tab help.
3. Click OK to save your settings and close the properties dialog box.

Change the Home Directory

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Required Actions

To change the Home Directory:

1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the icon for any supported instance and then click Properties.
2. For agents other than Oracle RAC, from the General tab of the Properties dialog box, type the path in the Home or Dir (Directory) box or use Browse to locate the path. Then go to Step 6.
3. For the MySQL iDataAgent, from the General tab of the Properties dialog box, type the path in the Binary Directory box or use Browse to locate the path. Also, type the path to the MySQL data directory in the Data Directory box or use Browse to locate the path. Then go to Step 6.
4. For Oracle RAC, from the Details tab of the Properties dialog box, click the appropriate client/instance/status and then click Modify.
5. In the Update Instance dialog box, enter the path in the Home box or use Browse to locate the path.
6. Click OK to save your settings.
7. Continue to make additional settings as desired.

Change the ONCONFIG File

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Required Actions

To change the ONCONFIG file:

1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the icon for any supported instance and then click Properties.
2. From the General tab of the Properties dialog box, type the path for the configuration file in the ONCONFIG File field or use Browse to locate the path.
3. Click OK to save your settings.

Change Account for Accessing Databases/Applications

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To change a user account for accessing DB2 databases:

1. From the CommCell Browser, expand the tree if necessary to view the desired level icon.
   • From the agent level, right-click the agent icon, click All Tasks from the short-cut menu, click New Instance, and go to the next step.
   • From the instance level, right-click the instance icon, click Properties from the short-cut menu, and go to Step 3.
   • From the backup set level, right-click the backup set icon, click Properties from the short-cut menu, and go to Step 4.
2. Use the Creating New Instance dialog box to create and configure the instance. Thereafter, from the General tab, click the Change button associated with the User Account information. Then go to Step 5.
3. From the General tab of the Instance Properties dialog box, click the Change button associated with the User Account information. Then go to Step 5.
4. From the General tab of the Backup Set Properties dialog box, ensure that the Connect as a Different User option is selected. Then click the Change button associated with the User Account information.
5. Enter the required information in the Set DB2 User Account dialog box.
6. Click OK to save the settings.

To change a user account for accessing Oracle or SAP for Oracle applications on Windows not associated with QR Agent:

1. From the CommCell Browser, expand the tree if necessary to view the desired level icon.
   • From the agent level, right-click the agent icon, click All Tasks from the short-cut menu, and click New Instance (Oracle SID).
   • From the instance level, right-click the instance icon and click Properties from the short-cut menu.
2. From the General tab, click the Change button associated with the User Account information.
3. Enter the required information in the Impersonate NT User dialog box.
4. Click OK to save the settings.

To change a user account for accessing Oracle applications for QR Agent:

1. From the CommCell Browser, expand the tree if necessary to view the QR agent icon. Then right-click the icon and click Properties.
2. From the Authentication tab, click the Oracle sub-tab.
3. From the Oracle sub-tab, either click Add Instance or select an Oracle instance to edit and then click Edit Instance.
4. From the Add Oracle Instance to QR Agent dialog box, click Change.
5. Enter the required information in the Impersonate NT User dialog box.
6. Click OK to save the settings.

To change a user account for accessing Informix, Oracle, or SAP for Oracle applications on Unix:

1. From the CommCell Browser, expand the tree if necessary to view the desired level icon. From the agent level, right-click the agent icon, click All Tasks from the short-cut menu, click New Instance, and go to the next step. From the instance level, right-click the instance icon, click Properties from the short-cut menu, and go to Step 3.
2. Use the New Instance dialog box to create and configure the instance.
3. From the General tab of the Instance Properties dialog box, do one of the following, as appropriate.
   • For Informix, type the name of the user account in the INFORMIX USER field.
   • For Oracle or SAP for Oracle, type the name of the user account in the ORACLE USER field.
4. Click OK to save the settings.

Back to Top