Restoring IBM Lotus Domino data from a decommissioned Domino server
Shankar Venkatachalam
Lotus Domino Administrator
IBM India Private Ltd.
Bangalore, KA India
November 2009
Summary: This article explains how to restore IBM® Lotus® Domino® data (for example, a mail file) from a Domino server that has been decommissioned. Also included are the error messages and/or problems that may arise after this activity on any IBM Tivoli® Data Protection (TDP) for Lotus Domino node.
Introduction
Let’s begin by describing the scenarios in which the restoration process comes in most handy:
· A customer has decommissioned a Domino server, and you need a database to be restored from that decommissioned server. In this case, you can use this process to restore the database without starting the Domino server.
· You have lost access to Domino ServerA, but you require a database from that server. You can modify the native ServerB's .OPT file to point to the ServerA node name, and you can restore ServerA's database on Server B.
Procedure
To restore Domino ServerA's data from Domino ServerB, follow these steps:
1) Rename the existing .OPT file on ServerB, for the time being.
2) Copy ServerA's .OPT file and paste it onto ServerB (Path=C:\Program files\Tivoli\tsm\domino).
3) Launch the TDP client on ServerB, which will point to ServerA’s .OPT file.
4) The error message, “Password file is not available” displays in the Data Protection for Lotus Domino window, as shown in figure 1.
Figure 1. “Password file is not available” window
5) Change the password for the corresponding (ServerA’s) node by contacting your Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) server team.
6) Once you get the new password for the node, select Utilities > Change TSM Password, from the menu.
7) Enter the password provided to you by the TSM team. (You must select the new password for ServerA’s node.) The “Password successfully changed” message displays (see figure 2).
Figure 2. “Password successfully changed” window
Once you enter the new password, you can see the data for ServerA's node on the ServerB TDP Client (see figure 3).
Figure 3. Data for ServerA’s node
Now, you can do a regular restore job for a different server, using the Restore tab (see figure 4).
Figure 4. Restore Progress window
NOTE: As a best practice, be sure to change the password for the native server’s .OPT file, since it may affect the server’s backup.
Conclusion
You should now understand how to restore data from a server that has been decommissioned, including the steps necessary to have a successful backup of data from a decommissioned server.
Resources
· developerWorks Lotus Notes and Domino product page:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/products/notesdomino/?S_TACT=105AGX13&S_CMP=LP
· developerWorks Tivoli product page:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/tivoli/