Netscape Calendar Server 4.0: Administrator's G uide

Node Maintenance

A regular schedule of Calendar Server node maintenance is the best protection against unscheduled down time or loss of data. By following the procedures outlined below, an administrator should minimize problems and ensure the smooth and uninterrupted running of the Calendar application within his enterprise.

This chapter outlines the following maintenance tasks:

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.

Select Server Status | Show Server Status from the Calendar Server Manager menu.
Select the option(s) you wish to invoke by clicking the appropriate check box(es).
Click OK to run the script.
This utility can also be run from the command line. See unistatus in Appendix G for complete instructions and syntax.

Open Properties from the Services menu. You will find the five Calendar Services listed in the Services display box with a flag indicating the service as "started", or no entry signifying that the service is stopped.

Check that ample space is left on the /users/unison directory or file system. See Appendix A for more information on calculating the storage requirements for your node.
Verify that the previous night's backup has run.
Check for recent writes to the /users/unison/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 using the unidbfix tool (documented in Appendix G).

Windows NT's Performance Monitor tool can be used to chart or log the performance and activity of the Calendar Server services. Windows NT's Event Viewer is used to record any problems in running the application.

Daily maintenance procedures

A nightly backup of the Calendar Server database (/users/unison/db/ ) and configuration files (/users/unison/misc ) is your best protection against database corruption which 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. See "Back up and Restore" below for more information.

Monthly maintenance procedures

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

Verify the consistency of the Calendar Server database(s). See the unidbfix utility in Appendix G for complete instructions.
Archive the log files. Remember to shut down the Calendar Server before archiving the log files and to restart the Calendar Server once the task is completed.

Other maintenance procedures

Run unidssync as required to ensure that the information in the Calendar node(s) is synchronized with that in the Directory Server. Although this utility should be run as part of a regular maintenance program, it is especially important in the following cases:

If other applications using the directory server have modified attributes used by the Calendar Server.

If [ENG] dac_itemget=FALSE in the /users/unison/misc/unison.ini file (select Server Preferences | Manage Calendar Server to verify this setting).

If [ENG] dac_dirdownfailover=TRUE in the /users/unison/misc/unison.ini file (select Server Preferences | Manage Calendar Server to verify this setting).
See the unidssync utility in Appendix G for complete instructions on the use and syntax of this utility.
Run unidsdiff to detect and resolve any discrepancies in the mapping between users and resources in the directory server with those in the Calendar node. See the unidsdiff utility in Appendix G for complete instructions on the use and syntax of this utility.
The utility unirmold, documented in Appendix G, should be used as needed to remove all events and tasks that are older than a specified value from a Calendar Server node.
To view the elapsed time and CPU statistics for each client connection, set the parameter stats = TRUE under [ENG] in the /users/unison/misc/unison.ini file. To set this parameter, select Server Preferences| Manage Calendar Server to open the "Manage Calendar Server" form, and follow the on-line instructions. When a client connection is closed, stats results are appended to the /users/unison/log/stats.log file. After analysis, set stats = FALSE to disable logging.
Refer to the directory server access logs for any suspected LDAP connection problems. See the Directory Server Administrator's Guide for the name and location of these files.

Back up and Restore

Calendar Server provides the functionality to perform `hot' or on-line backups. This capability is important in the context of installations requiring 24 hour access to their calendar data. To minimize inconsistencies should a restore be necessary, it is strongly recommended that directory server backups be made at the same time as Calendar Server backups. In addition, backups should be made during periods of low user activity.

During an on-line backup, the following behavior should be noted:

clients are permitted to log off
clients are not permitted to log on
currently logged-on users may view but not modify their calendar
if more than one node exists on a host, each node is locked and backed up in succession

To back up a Calendar Server host:

Select Database Management | Backup from the Calendar Server Manager.
Enter a name for the backup, or leave the entry box blank to accept a system assigned name. The system assigned name is generated from a time and date stamp to ensure that the name is unique.
Click OK. A backup will be made of all Calendar database and configuration files on your Calendar Server.

Calendar Server backups can also be performed using the unidbbackup utility. See Appendix G for complete instructions on the use and syntax of this utility.

To restore a Calendar Server host:

Shut down the Calendar Server following the procedure outlined in the following section.
Select Database Management | Restore from the Calendar Server Manager.
In the entry box, select a backup directory from the displayed options, or enter the absolute path of a backup directory you wish to restore. Note that this restore option should be used only for backups created using the backup function accessed through the Calendar Server Manager.
Click OK. Your Calendar database and configuration files will be restored to the /users/unison directory on the Calendar host.

Warning
This operation restores only the Calendar database and configuration files. Calendar data stored in the 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 utilities unidsdiff and unidssync to identify and resolve all discrepancies. See Appendix G for complete instructions on the use and syntax of these utilities.

Calendar Server can also be restored using the unidbrestore utility. See Appendix G for complete instructions on the use and syntax of this utility.

To delete a Calendar Server backup:

Archived backups should be managed to ensure full data recovery capabilities without sacrificing large amounts of disk space. Backups which are no longer needed are removed using the Calendar Server Manager.

Select Database Management | Delete Backups from the Calendar Server Manager.
Locate the backup(s) you wish to remove and click Delete.

Shutdowns

On the Server Administration Page, to the left of the server's name, is an icon that can be toggled between OFF/ON. If the server is running, ON is illuminated by a green light.
Using the Calendar Server Manager form:

Shell script -- unistop. For full instructions on the use of this script, see Appendix G.

From the Services Control Panel -- stop the five Calendar Server services (uniengd, unilckd, unicwsd, unisncd and unidasd)

Warning
As a result of the number of user connections, the number of processes running, and the volume of network traffic, Calendar Server may take over a minute to stop.