How to take a back up of the existing TM1 Models.

[Ashish_TM1]

Hi All,

I got stuck at a point of my work.

I am required to take a back up of the TM1 models existing on the environment

Version: TM1 9.4
OS : Windows 2000

Pre-Production and Production exist on different Boxes.(I need to take a back up of both, possibly both at a time).

Please let me know the detailed steps involved, risks. How do I proceed for the end to end back up of TM1 Models,Websheets and Excel Sheets. Which one would be suggestable whether I can proceed backup with Shutting Down the TM1 Server or performing live back up without shutting down tm1 server.

If possible guide me how can Pre-Production and Production be in sink, like if any new changes occurs at Pre-Production it should be automatically updated into Production and vice versa.

Thanks & Regards,
Ashish

[Alan Kirk]

I am required to take a back up of the TM1 models existing on the environment

Version: TM1 9.4
OS : Windows 2000

I know that this isn't what you're asking but I'll mention it in passing; the last time I saw Windows 2000 on the list of supported server environments, it was for version 9.0.

9.1 still supported it for client, but only up to 9.1 SP3. You won't find it listed for servers, and you won't find it listed at all for 9.4. If you run into problems you may have a problem getting support from IBM.

Pre-Production and Production exist on different Boxes.(I need to take a back up of both, possibly both at a time).

Please let me know the detailed steps involved,

It depends on how you want to do it, where you want to back it up to and what kind of backup software that you want to use (or whether you just want to use a simple script). The key point is that (except when doing a data save) TM1 doesn't generally have a lock on the files in your data directory. (I can't recall whether it locks .vue or .sub files when it's updating them, but any decent backup software should be able to handle that since the lock should be fleeting. It certainly won't have .cub files locked since it only reads them at startup.) That means that you don't need to take down the server before doing a copy, since TM1 probably won't be using the files. (Thus, another virtue of the "in memory" model.) We have scheduled backups each night (without taking the server down), and it's never been a problem.

The (active) log files like tm1s.log are another issue. TM1 does have a lock on those and if you try to copy those while the server is running you're unlikely to be successful. Also if TM1 can't write to a log file, it will automatically shut down the server which is annoying. We keep the log files in a separate directory from the data files.

risks. How do I proceed for the end to end back up of TM1 Models,Websheets and Excel Sheets.

Essentially you just copy the data directory or, if you use proper backup software, the files that have changed since the last backup. There are many ways that you can go about that; whether you want to do it on the cheap and write a script to copy the whole folder, or whether you want to go for professional level backup software like EMC Retrospect, the choice is yours.

Which one would be suggestable whether I can proceed backup with Shutting Down the TM1 Server or performing live back up without shutting down tm1 server.

If possible guide me how can Pre-Production and Production be in sink, like if any new changes occurs at Pre-Production it should be automatically updated into Production and vice versa.

I think the only way you can really do that is by replication, unless you take down both servers and copy the latest files from one folder to the other which I would STRONGLY advise against.

We use replication to keep dimensions in sync (in one direction only, though) by replicating the associated attribute cubes. Most of the time it works well, but it's not bullet proof. We did have an instance recently where the attributes weren't replicating. Rather than throw an error into the log directory, it just recorded an error in the standard replication log in the data directory... where we didn't see it until we went looking for it. Also, subset replication seems to be a joke even if the appropriate selections are made.

As for replicating data cubes? Well, I suspect that my forum admin colleague Matt Goff will be along shortly to explain his thoughts on replication, subject to the Forum retaining its PG13 rating for a 7.30 timeslot. I've never tried it and from what I've heard from Matt and others, I don't wish to unless I absolutely have to either.

Though that having been said, I'm not sure about the wisdom of having two way replication between a development and a production environment anyway.

[Ashish_TM1]

Thanks very much Alan, I will try with what you have suggested If something goes wrong I will be back to you.

[rkaif]

IBM website has a PDF document which explains the Proven Practice to backup TM1 data. You can find that document at the following location:

http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/p ... _guide.pdf