Release Notes

|13.3 How to Use Suspended I/O for Database Recovery

| | | | |

|The information below about the db2inidb utility supersedes the information |in the Version 7.2 What's New book.

|db2inidb is a tool shipped with DB2 that can perform crash recovery or put |a database in rollforward pending state.

|Suspended I/O supports continuous system availability by providing a full |implementation for online split mirror handling, that is, splitting a mirror |without shutting down the database. If you cannot afford to do offline |or online backups on a large database, you can do backups or system copies |from a mirror image by using suspended I/O and a split mirror image.

|Suspended I/O prevents disk writes while the split mirror image of a |database is being taken. All database operations besides online backup |and restore should function normally while a database is suspended. |However, some operations may wait for I/O writes to resume if dirty pages must |be flushed from the buffer pool or log buffers to the logs. These |operations should resume normally once the database I/O is resumed. It |is important that the database I/O be resumed from the same connection that it |was originally suspended. Otherwise, subsequent connection attempts may |hang if they require flushing dirty pages from the buffer pool to disk. |These connections will complete once database I/O resumes. If your |connection attempts are hanging, and it has become impossible to resume the |I/O from the connection that you used to suspend it, then you will have to |perform a crash recovery using the WRITE RESUME option of the RESTART |command.

|In a partitioned database environment, you don't have to suspend I/O |writes on all partitions simultaneously. You can suspend a subset of |one or more partitions in order to create split mirrors to perform offline |backups. If the catalog node is included in the subset, it must be the |last partition to be suspended.

|Mirroring a database primarily involves copying the entire contents of the |database directory, and the local database directory. The local |database directory, sqldbdir, is located at the same level of the |file structure as the main database directory. In addition, if the log |directory and table space containers are not in the database directory, then |they must also be copied. Since the split mirrored database is |dependent on these directory paths, the paths that these directories are |copied to must be identical to those of the primary system. This means |that the instance must also be the same. As a result of this |dependency, it is not possible to create a mirror database on the same system |as the primary database unless the new "relocate" option of the db2inidb |tool is used.

|The purpose of the "relocate" option is to relocate a database on a |given system using a specified configuration file. This can involve |changing the internal database directory, container directory, log directory, |instance name and database names. Assuming the database directory, |container directories and log directory were successfully mirrored to |different directory paths on the same system as the primary database, the |db2inidb tool can be used along with the "relocate" option to update the |mirrored database's internal paths. A usage scenario with this |option can be found below.

|Depending on how the storage devices are being mirrored, the uses of |db2inidb will vary. The following uses assume that the entire database |is mirrored consistently through the storage system.

|In a multinode environment, the db2inidb tool must be run on every |partition before the split mirror can be used from any of the |partitions. The db2inidb tool can be run on all partitions |simultaneously by using the db2_all command. |

|
|Making a Clone Database
|The objective here is to have a clone of the primary database to be used on |another system. The following procedure describes how a clone database |may be made: |
1. |Suspend I/O writes on the primary database by entering the following |command:
```
|     db2 set write suspend for database
```
2. |Use operating system and disk subsystem level commands to split the mirror |from the primary database. Ensure that you split both the data and the |logs.
3. |Resume I/O writes on the primary database by entering the following |command:
```
|     db2 set write resume for database
```
  |After running the command, the primary database should be back to a normal |state.
4. |Mount the split mirror of the primary database on another system.
5. |Start the database instance on the other system, by entering the following |command:
```
|     db2start
```
6. |Start the DB2 crash recovery by entering the following command:
```
|db2inidb database_name AS  SNAPSHOT
```
  |Note:
  This command will remove the suspend write state and roll back the changes |made by transactions that were occurring at the time of the split. |
  |
|You can also use this process to perform an offline backup, but if restored |on the primary database, this backup cannot be used to roll forward, because |the log chain will not match.
|
|Using the Split Mirror as a Standby Database
|As the mirrored (standby) database is continually rolling forward through |the logs, new logs that are being created by the primary database are |constantly fetched from the primary system. The following procedure |describes how the split mirror can be used as a standby database: |
1. |Suspend I/O writes on the primary database:
```
|	db2 set write suspend for database
```
2. |Use operating system and disk subsystem level commands to split the mirror |from the primary database. Ensure that you only split the data and not |the logs.
3. |Resume the I/O writes on the primary database so that it goes back to |normal processing.
```
|	db2 set write resume for database
```
4. |Mount the split mirror of the database to another system.
5. |Start the primary database instance by using the db2start |command.
6. |Place the mirror in roll forward pending and roll forward the |mirror:
```
|	db2inidb database_name AS STANDBY
```
  |
  |Note:
  This command will remove the suspend write state and place the mirrored |database in rollforward pending state. |
7. |Copy logs by setting up a user exit program to retrieve log files from the |primary system to ensure that the latest logs will be available for this |mirrored database.
8. |Roll forward the database to the end of the logs.
9. |Go back to step f and repeat this process until the primary database is |down.
10. |Roll forward the database to the end of the logs, using the AND STOP |option to bring the database back online. It will now be ready to |use. |
|
|Using the Split Mirror as a Backup Image
|The following procedure describes how to use the mirrored database as a |backup image to restore over the primary database: |
1. |Stop the primary database instance with the db2stop |command.
2. |Use operating system and disk subsystem commands to copy the mirrored data |back on top of the primary database. Do not copy back the log |files. The logs on the primary database must be used for rollforward |operations.
3. |Start the primary database instance with the db2start |command.
4. |Run the following command to place the mirrored database in a rollforward |pending state and to remove the suspend write state:
```
|db2inidb database_name AS MIRROR
```
5. |Roll forward the database to the end of the logs, using the AND STOP |option to bring the database back online. It will now be ready to |use. |
|
|Splitting a Mirror onto the Same System as the Primary Database
|The following procedure describes how to use the "relocate" option of |the db2inidb tool to mirror a database onto the same system as the primary |database. The example assumes that the database will be used under a |new instance. |
1. |Create a new instance on the current system.
2. |Suspend I/O writes on the primary database:
```
|	db2 set write suspend for database
```
3. |Use the operating system and disk subsystem level commands to split the |mirror from the primary database.
  |Note:
  The database directory, local database directory, container directories, and |log directory must be copied to the new instance. If the container |directories or the log directory exist under the database directory, then only |the database directory and local database directory need to be copied. |
4. |Resume I/O writes on the primary database so that it goes back to normal |processing:
```
|	db2 set write resume for database
```
5. |Create a configuration file with the following information:
  | DB_NAME=name,optional_new_name
  | DB_PATH=primary_db_dir_path,mirrored_db_dir_path
  | INSTANCE=primary_instance,mirror_instance
  | LOG_DIR=primary_db_log_dir,mirrored_db_log_dir
  | CONT_PATH=primary_db_container_#1_path,
  | mirrored_db_container_#1_path ...
  | CONT_PATH=primary_db_container_#n_path,
  | mirrored_db_container_#n_path
  | NODENUM=node_#
  
  |
  |Note:
  The LOG_DIR and the CONT_PATH fields are required only if the log directory |and container directories exist outside of the database directory. All |of the other fields are required, except for NODENUM, which will default to |zero if not specified. |
6. |Start the database from the newly created instance:
```
|	db2start
```
7. |Relocate the mirrored database, remove the suspended state, and place the |mirror in the rollforward pending state:
```
|	db2inidb database_name as STANDBY relocate using config_file
```
8. |Copy logs by setting up a user exit program to retrieve log files from the |primary database to ensure that the latest logs will be available for this |mirrored database.
9. |Roll forward the database to the end of the logs.
10. |Go back to step h and repeat this process until the primary database is |down.
11. |Roll forward the database to the end of the logs, using the AND STOP |option to bring the database back online. It will now be ready to |use. |
|

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