5 1 0:HCL Domino Server Restore

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Docs latest icon.png Welcome to the latest SEP sesam documentation version 5.1.0 Apollon. For previous documentation version(s), check documentation archive.


Overview


The Lotus Domino (previously Lotus Notes) corporate brand has been first acquired by IBM and then by HCL Technologies. The Lotus Domino product name is now HCL Domino server; however, SEP sesam documentation update (such as screenshots) to reflect these changes is being done in a phased manner, therefore HCL Domino may still appear under the name Lotus Notes, Lotus Domino or IBM Domino.

SEP sesam allows you to restore HCL Domino (previously IBM Domino) databases directly to the HCL Domino server system. You can restore a complete HCL Domino database or individual files (database files and transaction log files) in the database.

Restore interfaces

There are two ways to restore HCL Domino databases in SEP sesam: using the GUI restore wizard (described here) or (as of 5.0.0 Jaglion) via the web interface Restore Assistant. Although most options are the same in both restore interfaces, the web Restore Assistant is more intuitive and offers additional advanced options.

  • In the GUI, the restore is triggered from the Menu bar -> Activities -> Restore. The restore wizard guides you through the process of restoring your data.
    • You can only use the GUI to schedule a restore task (Scheduling -> New -> New Restore Event or Scheduling -> right-click schedule or event -> New Restore Event). For details, see Scheduling Restore..
  • You can access the web Restore Assistant in one of the following ways:
    • via the GUI: by clicking the Restore Assistant icon in the toolbar or from Activities -> Restore Assistant
    • from SEP sesam Web UI: left menu -> Restore Assistant
    • or by entering the following address in the browser bar: http://[sesamserver]:11401/sep/ui/restore/.
  • The operations and options available after logging in may differ depending on the user type. Other Web UI display restrictions may depend on the custom roles with specific permissions and the UI mode.
    For details, see About Authentication and Authorization and User Roles and Permissions.

This article provides information about a HCL Domino restore using GUI. For details on restoring using the web Restore Assistant, see Restore Assistant.

HCL Domino GUI restore

SEP sesam GUI restore wizard allows you to easily configure a restore job by selecting what you want to restore and where you want to restore your data – to its original location or to a different location. You can also perform point-in-time recovery or disaster recovery.

Note that the Domino API does not provide direct backup and restore options for single emails or documents. Therefore, SEP sesam cannot restore individual email messages directly in the restore wizard. In order to restore individual mails, a workaround is required which will restore the entire database under a temporary name into the file system and then copy individual mail messages. This procedure requires profound knowledge of HCL Domino administration. For details, see section Restoring individual mails.

Restoring to the original location

The restore over the Domino API can be executed selectively (single or several databases) or fully (typically required only for disaster recovery).

Create a new restore task for the database you want to restore.

  1. From the SEP sesam GUI menu bar, select Activities -> Restore. The New Restore Task window opens.
  2. Select what you want to restore. You can search savesets by task name or by filename or path.
  3. Domino filter.jpg
  4. When searching by task name, use the drop-down list of available tasks and select the one you want to restore from. This option is selected by default.
  5. If you are searching by filename/path, select the option Filename or path in a saveset and enter your search expression in the search pattern field.
  6. Under the Saved in period drop-down lists, specify the time frame for which you want to conduct the search. Click Next.
  7. In the Select Files dialog, select the data you want to restore and click Next.
  8. Domino select files.jpg
  9. In the Target Settings dialog, select Restore to original target path option, and then a relevant execution option. The following Execution options are available:
  10. Do not overwrite existing items
    The data will not be restored if it already exists on the Domino server.
    Overwrite existing items
    If data exists on the Domino server, it will be replaced by the restored version. Note that you can access the restored file immediately.
    Create new version
    If data exists on the target server, the restored data will be restored under a new name.
    No recover after restore
    The databases are simply restored to the target system without applying any existing transaction logs to the database after the restore.
    Auto recover (and online) after restore
    Any existing transaction logs are automatically applied to every restored database.
    Information sign.png Note
    With the additional restore option -a logs only the transaction logs from the saveset are stored on the client. You can enter this option under the Expert Options in the fourth Target Settings step of the restore wizard. The Expert Options button for specifying advanced restore options is available only in advanced UI mode (formerly expert GUI mode). To use Expert Options, make sure your UI mode is set to advanced. For details, see Selecting UI mode.

    Domino restore to original location.jpg

  11. In the final step of the restore wizard, you can review all the settings of your restore task. You can also edit the settings by using Change Selection button. If you want to start your restore immediately, click Start. If you want to save the restore task, click Save.

A restore task can be scheduled like any other task. If you want to add a restore task to the schedule, see Scheduling Restore.

Restoring to a new location

Create a new restore task for the database you want to restore.

  1. From the SEP sesam GUI menu bar, select Activities -> Restore. The New Restore Task window opens.
  2. Select what you want to restore. You can search savesets by task name or by filename or path.
  3. When searching by task name, use the drop-down list of available tasks and select the one you want to restore from. This option is selected by default.
  4. If you are searching by filename/path, select the option Filename or path in a saveset and enter your search expression in the search pattern field.
  5. Under the Saved in period drop-down lists, specify the time frame for which you want to conduct the search. Click Next.
  6. In the Select Files dialog, select the data you want to restore and click Next.
  7. In the Target Settings dialog, select New restore target option, and browse for the path, or enter it manually.
  8. Domino restore to a different location.jpg
    Note that when restoring a database (e.g., user1.nsf) to a new location, HCL Domino automatically detects if it will be restored into a path inside the Domino data path. If you use a different path (e.g., E:/temp/restore) by browsing, the restore is performed as a path restore without transfer to the Domino API. For example, the database is stored in E:/temp/restore/<notespath>/user1.nsf.
    Notes Restore-Relocate FileList en.jpg
    As an administrator, you have to copy the database file to the target location in the Domino file path manually according to the requirements of the file restoration.

Point-in-time recovery

Point-in-time recovery provides a flexible restore by allowing you to bring the state of the database to its state at any time since your backups were taken. This is done by the dbrecover utility which is included in the SEP sesam Client. For details on dbrecover options, see section HCL Domino dbrecover utility.

You can perform point-in-time recovery of the Domino databases with transaction logs from the alternate (recommended) or productive log directory (LogDir).

Prerequisites

Recovering databases with transaction logs from alternate LogDir

Point-in-time recovery of the Domino databases with transaction logs from the alternate LogDir consists of the following steps:

  1. Restore the database to a different location (e.g., C:\temp).
  2. Under Execution options, select options Do not overwrite existing items and No recover after restore.
  3. Restore all necessary transaction logs (*.txn) to the alternate LogDir (e.g., also C:\temp).
  4. The command dbrecover recover_alt gets the required recovery information about the Domino backup API from the alternate LogDir, so you have to add an alternate LogDir (e.g. C:\temp) in the notes.ini by specifying TRANSLOG_RECOVER_PATH=C:\temp\.
  5. Start the dbrecover utility in the command line. For example, to restore the database sbold.nsf from 18/12/2018 01:23 pm, you have to execute the following command from the directory <SESAM_BIN>\bin\sesam:
  6.   dbrecover recover_alt "c:\temp\sbold.nsf" "18/12/18 01:23 pm"

    The output should be similar to the following:

     $Id: dbrecover.c,v 1.13 2019/04/16 17:08:06 miraculix Exp $
     Recovering backup file ...
     MRecover with DBRECOVER_ZAP_ID
     Recover with DBRECOVER_ALT_RETRIEVE_PATH: The archived log extents must be placed into the 
     TRANSLOG_RECOVER_PATH NOTES.INI
     Recover with DBRECOVER_POINT_IN_TIME 18/12/15 01:23 pm
     [039C:0002-0910] Media Recovery Replay (212 MB): 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 100%
     [039C:0002-0910] 18.12.2015 16:35:57   Recovery Manager: Media Recovery complete for E:\RECOVER- 
     TEST\sbold.nsf, last update applied 18.12.2015 13:22:52. 
     Backup file c:\temp\sbold.nsf recovered. 
     Program completed successfully.
  7. Then copy the database into the HCL Domino Server file space.

Recovering databases with transaction logs from productive LogDir

To perform point-in-time recovery of the Domino databases with transaction logs from the productive LogDir, proceed as follows:

  1. Restore the database to a different location (e.g., C:\temp).
  2. Under Execution options, select options Do not overwrite existing items and No recover after restore.
  3. Make sure that all required transaction logs exist in the LogDir of the HCL Domino server (if necessary, through separate restores) because dbrecover gets the required recover information over the Domino API.
  4. Start the dbrecover utility in the command line. For example, to restore the database rbogner.nsf from 11/02/2018 04:00 am, you have to execute the following command from the directory <SESAM_BIN>\bin\sesam:
  5.   dbrecover recover c:\temp\rbogner.nsf "11/02/18 04:00 am"

    The output should be similar to the following:

     $Id: dbrecover.c,v 1.13 2019/04/16 17:01:09 miraculix Exp $
      Recovering backup file ...
     Media Recovery Replay (60 MB): 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
     11.02.2018 10:08:52   Recovery Manager: Media Recovery complete for c:\temp\rbogner.nsf, last 
     update applied 11.02.2018 03:48:23.
      Backup file c:\temp\rbogner.nsf recovered. 
     Program completed successfully.
  6. Then copy the database into the HCL Domino Server file space.

Restoring single mails

Information sign.png Note

A direct restore of single mails or documents from HCL Domino databases is not possible because of the special functionality of the Domino API. Single mails can only be restored from backups with the profound knowledge of the HCL Domino administrator.

The following simplified scenario shows how the HCL Domino administrator can restore single documents/mails.

Example:

Today, the user of the mail database user1.nsf has accidentally deleted a few days old email. This email must exist in the last night’s backup. HCL Domino cannot restore an existing database into a different directory or with a different name on the same server directly over the Domino API, because Domino will notice that a database with the same replica-ID already exists.

The only solution is that you restore the database into the file system, then you have to create a copy of this database, and have to copy the required email from it to the restore destination.

As an administrator, proceed as follows to restore a single mail:

  1. Restore the database user1.nsf on the Domino server into the file system (not in Domino data root!).
  2. Open user1.nsf locally with the Domino client or the Domino administrator and create a copy with the name user1a.nsf on the Domino server. Creating this new copy assigns a different replica-ID to the database user1a.nsf than the original user1.nsf has. Therefore HCL Domino recognizes them as two completely different databases.
  3. Give the necessary access rights to open both databases. Then copy the required email from user1a.nsf to user1.nsf.
  4. After restoring the email, delete the database user1a.nsf.

Monitoring restore

You can monitor the restore progress using the Web UI (Monitoring -> Restores) or view the status in the GUI (Main Selection -> Job State -> Restores). Restore overview provides detailed information on the last run of restore jobs, including the task name, status (successful, error, in queue...), start and stop time of the last backup, data size, throughput, client and message.

Disaster recovery

Prerequisites

To prepare an HCL Domino server for a possible disaster recovery, the following backups are required:

  • Operating system
    • Windows
      • system partition with VSS
      • backup of system data (system_state)
      • backup of the Domino application (directory with the Domino binaries)
    • Linux
      • complete Linux system without Domino data (all-backup)
      • backup of partition data (disk_info)
  • HCL Domino online backup of all Domino databases with the source all. For details, see Configuring IBM (HCL) Domino backup.

Steps

  1. In case of a disk crash, first the OS and the HCL Domino program files are restored.
  2. Information sign.png Note
    It is important that you do not start the Domino service at this point!
  3. Next, the HCL Domino data is restored as a path backup to the original Domino data path with overwrite existing files option. Hereby all databases, transaction logs, ID-files and the notes.ini are copied to the server.
  4. Before starting, you have to delete file(s) nlogctrl.* in the log directory.
  5. After the successful restore of all Domino databases, you can start the Domino service. During startup, the Domino server automatically checks the consistency of the databases and recovers their state.

Note that the Domino recovery procedure may take some time. This depends on the number of the restored databases and their volume.

HCL Domino dbrecover utility

SEP sesam provides the Domino recover utility dbrecover which allows to archive HCL Domino logs and to perform database recovery and restore. It also allows point-in-time recovery, as described in the section Point-in-time recovery.

Information sign.png Note
Do not use dbrecover ARCHIVE together with SEP sesam incremental backups because the archived logs may not be backed up with SEP sesam, if they are already backed up into files. Therefore the files may be missing during SEP sesam HCL Domino database recovery.

The following dbrecover arguments are displayed with the dbrecover usage:

#>dbrecover
$Id: dbrecover.c,v 1.13 2017/04/16 17:01:09 miraculix Exp $

Usage: dbrecover <option> [input file] [restore db|datetime]

option: ARCHIVE - Archive system logs.   (Input file NOT REQUIRED)
        CHECK   - Check a database or backup file.    (Input file REQUIRED)
        RECOVER - Recover a backup file. (Input file REQUIRED, DateTime optional)
        RECOVER_ALT - Recover with archive log extends in TRANSLOG_RECOVER_PATH. (Input file REQUIRED)
        NOTE    - Recover a backup file and get Note info. (Input file REQUIRED)
        NOTE_ALT    - Recover get Note info with log extends in TRANSLOG_RECOVER_PATH (Input file REQUIRED)
        RESTORE - Restore a database.    (Input file & restore db REQUIRED)

input file: - Path to a backup file.   (If REQUIRED)

restore db: - Path to the database to be restored.   (If REQUIRED)

datetime  : - Date and time in system format, e.g., '01/01/18 12:01 AM' (optional)

Hint:   To specify an .ini file, add an argument preceded by the equal sign ('='), e.g., 
'=../notes.ini'
Option RECOVER
If selected, a Database Instance Identifier (DBIID) of the recovered file is refreshed, allowing access to the original database (DB) and to the recovered version. This option creates a new instance of the original database, therefore a separate backup is required for this new instance in order to enable it to be also recovered at the time of need.
Option RESTORE
If selected, the original DB's DBIID is not refreshed and a new instance is not created. This option deletes the original DB when it is offline and replaces it with the recovered backup file.

For more information on transaction logging and DBIID, see Enabling transaction logging in Archive mode.


External references

See also

Restore AssistantIBM Domino Server ConfigurationIBM Domino Server Backup

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