Backing up IBM Safer Payments

A backup can be used if an upgrade fails or for disaster recovery if all instances are corrupted.

About this task

During a backup, the application writes a large amount of data in a short time period. It is necessary to freeze the folders to prevent data corruptions in the backup. The disk activity during the backup can significantly slow down the system and result in high latency of the incoming transactions.

During normal operations, every instance has a full copy of all configuration and all data. It is best to use the internal restore command to recover an instance from another working machine.

Procedure

  1. Shut down IBM® Safer Payments.
  2. Back up the following folders:
    • ddc
    • cfg
    • usr
    • inv (except the arc... folders)
    • key
    • pws
    • eml
    • sai
    • kpi
    • fli (if the instance had unsynchronized messages)

    Back up other folders that are given in the cluster.iris file. Other folders are optional. A full system backup of all folders in the system can be performed. The IBM Safer Payments binary must not be backed up because it is part of the installation package.

  3. Restart IBM Safer Payments.

    It is best to shut down an instance before backing up. However, with some configurations this is not possible due to the length of time it takes to start an instance. Another option is to use the setOffline API request. However, due to earlier defects the setOffline API request should be used only on versions 5.7.0.15, 6.0.0.12, 6.1.0.10, 6.2.1.05, 6.3.0.02, 6.4.0.00 or later.

    The setOffline API request sets an instance to offline status, which ensures that all incoming interfaces are deactivated and the deferred writing thread is stopped. The following steps describe how to use the request:

    1. Send the setOffline API request and specify the instance that you want to be offline.
    2. Use the isOffline API request to check whether an instance is in offline status (which will occur only after the deferred writing thread completes its full dump of data).
    3. After isOffline returns true, create a backup of the folders that are previously listed.
    4. After the backup is finished, use the setOffline API request to set an instance back to online status.