15
Node Maintenance

A regular schedule of node maintenance is the best protection against unscheduled down time and loss of data. Following the procedures outlined later in this chapter will minimize problems and ensure that your calendar server runs smoothly and without interruption.

This chapter outlines the following tasks:

• Server Maintenance Procedures
• Server Backup and Restore
• User Backup and Restore

Server Maintenance Procedures

Daily Monitoring Procedures

The following system monitoring procedures should be performed on a daily basis:

• Check that all relevant daemons/services are operational.
• Check that ample space is left in the $ORACLE_HOME/ocal directory or file system. For more information on calculating the storage requirements for your node, see Appendix A, "Disk Space and Memory".
• Verify that the previous night's backup has run.
• Search for unusual entries in the log files in the $ORACLE_HOME/ocal/log directory. This task can be automated by "grep"ing/searching the log files for specific errors, and e-mailing the results to the calendar server administrator.
• Check for recent writes to the $ORACLE_HOME/ocal/log/dbv.log. This file is created only if there is a problem and should be manually removed once the problem is resolved. If the file is present and is not empty, you might analyze the contents and use the unidbfix utility, or consult your support provider for further assistance.

NT

Windows NT's Performance Monitor tool can be used to chart or log the performance and activity of the calendar services. Windows NT's Event Viewer records any problems encountered running the application.

Cmd line

The unistatus utility displays the current status of the calendar server. The uniwho utility can be used to display the list of users currently logged on to the calendar server. Use the -nolist if you only want to see the total number of signed-in calendar users. For full information on use and syntax of these utilities, see Appendix E, "Utilities" in the Oracle Calendar Reference Manual.

Web GUI

The Calendar Administrator can also be used to view the server status. Click the Server Administration tab and then on Servers. The server or servers in the same network will be listed. From this page, you can already see which servers are up and which ones are down based on the icons in the Actions column. Click the View icon in the Actions column for the server you want to view. The Identification section displays whether the server is running and the number of users currently logged on. Other server settings (indicating whether user passwords can be changed, whether the server is connected to a Directory Server, etc.) are also displayed.

Special Monitoring Procedures

It is possible to turn on logging of specific calendar activities using server parameters. Most of these options should be turned on for short periods of time as it increases the amount of data written to log files and can cause these files to grow rapidly. Statistical data can be compiled regarding user connections, activity information of the unicwsd daemon/service, directory server access, etc.

To view elapsed time and CPU statistics for each client connection, set [ENG] stats=TRUE in unison.ini. When a client connection is closed, stats results are appended to the $ORACLE_HOME/ocal/log/stats.log file. Once the period being analyzed has passed, you must not forget to set the parameter [ENG]stats back to FALSE to disable logging, as the file grows quickly.

See also parameters [CWS]log_activity and log_modulesinclude, [ENG]stats, activity and dac_failederrlog in Appendix C, "Calendar Server Parameters" of the Oracle Calendar Reference Manual.

Daily Maintenance Procedures

A nightly backup of the calendar database ($ORACLE_HOME/ocal/db) and configuration files ($ORACLE_HOME/ocal/misc) is your best protection against database corruption that may occur as a result of a power failure or disk crashes. While database corruption is rare, even under the aforementioned conditions, nightly backups serve as a safeguard in the event that your database cannot be restored. For more information, see "Server Backup and Restore" later in this chapter.

Monthly Maintenance Procedures

The following system maintenance procedures should be done after hours on a monthly basis:

• Archive the log files. Remember to shut down the server before archiving the log files, and to restart the server once the task is completed.
• If you are using a directory server, run unidssync as required to ensure that the information in the node(s) is synchronized with that in the directory server. For full information on use and syntax of the unidssync utility, see Appendix E, "Utilities" in the Oracle Calendar Reference Manual.
• To improve performance and minimize disk space requirements, the unirmold utility should be run monthly to remove all events and tasks older than 12-18 months. For full information on use and syntax of unirmold, see Appendix E, "Utilities" in the Oracle Calendar Reference Manual.

Other Maintenance Procedures

• Verify the consistency of the server database(s) using the unidbfix utility.
• The unidbfix utility should be run in check mode once a week with the calendar server running, and in fix mode once a month with the calendar server down. If the weekly check discovers an error, it should be corrected immediately using unidbfix in fix mode; if the weekly check produces a warning, maintenance can be delayed until the monthly fix.

  It is possible to stop one node at a time. This allows you to run unidbfix on a single stopped node while the rest of the nodes are still active. Use the -n option to specify which nodes to fix. More than one instance of the unidbfix utility can be run at the same time on different nodes. For full information on use and syntax of unidbfix, see Appendix E, "Utilities" in the Oracle Calendar Reference Manual.

• If you are using a directory server, run unidsdiff to detect and resolve any discrepancies in the mapping between users and resources in the directory server with those in the calendar server node. For full information on use and syntax of unidsdiff, see Appendix E, "Utilities" in the Oracle Calendar Reference Manual. You should perform this synchronization procedure every 2 to 4 weeks or as required when making a batch of changes to the calendar node, particularly when deleting users. You may also synchronize your calendar and directory servers through the Calendar Administrator.
• The administrator can append text at the end of notification and reminder e-mail messages sent out by a server. See Appendix C, "Calendar Server Parameters" of the Oracle Calendar Reference Manual, for details on how to enable message banners for mail notifications and reminders using the [CWS]banner parameter.

Server Backup and Restore

To minimize the impact on your users, back up your calendar server only during periods of low user activity. If you use an external directory server, back up your directory server concurrently with your calendar server to minimize inconsistencies should it become necessary to restore a backup.

You have three options for backing up your calendar server:

• the unidbbackup utility
• stopping the calendar server and running the uniarch utility
• stopping the calendar server and copying or zipping the database files directly

The unidbbackup utility is recommended, as it provides on-line or `hot' backups allowing users to login during a backup. An on-line backup cannot be achieved by simply copying the database files while the server is still running, as the files on disk are not necessarily an accurate reflection of the state of the database at any given time. If you choose to copy the database files directly, you must stop your server to allow all database contents to be written to the disk first.

While unidbbackup is running, users can sign-in and sign-out. They may view but not modify their agenda. If more than one node exists on a host, each node is locked and backed up in succession. The -lockall option can be used to lock all the specified nodes at the same time instead of one by one. This will improve the data consistency for connected nodes. The unidbbackup utility can be used to make a backup of a single node using the -n option.

unidbrestore is the complementary utility used for database restoration. For full information on the use and syntax of the unidbbackup and unidbrestore utilities, see Appendix E, "Utilities" in the Oracle Calendar Reference Manual.

To back up a calendar host:

• Execute the unidbbackup utility through the command line. A backup will be made of all database and configuration files on your calendar server. If more than one node exists on the host, unidbbackup will back up each node in turn. To make backups of specific nodes only use the -n option.

To restore a calendar host:

Important: This operation restores only the database and configuration files. Calendar data stored in a directory server must be restored separately. If you have any reason to expect that inconsistencies may exist between the data in the calendar server and that in the directory server, use the unidsdiff and unidssync utilities to identify and resolve all discrepancies after you restore. For full information on use and syntax, see Appendix E, "Utilities" in the Oracle Calendar Reference Manual.