Hi,

If I restore production database files from a backup tape to a test sever (/oracle/data, /oracle/index, /oracle/redo, etc files), will it cause any licensing issues on the test server? Is the baan license info stored in the database or else where outside the database?

Will copying only the oracle files work or any activities in oracle are also required?

If it works, I am planning to take sequential dump of the tools tables (tt), restore database files from the backup tape and then overwrite the tools table with the sequential table so that any development related data is not lost.

I do not have enough space on the production server to take a sequential dump of the entire company data hence I wish to try the above process.

Your inputs are highly appreciated.

Best Regards,
Shekhar

Hi Shekar,

Pl. be informed , DB backup can be restored in test server but license cannot be deployed from backup to test server.

Regards,
Sushil Kumar Mudaliar

Copying the BSE folder might help (dont know how its on HP UX) take care of the licencing problem. Dont forget to run the session Patch Objects after System Crash {ttiex3228m000} on the Test Server...

sk

Hi Shekhar,

some comments frommy side.

a) Copying/restoring everything over should indeed work with minimal problems, if any.

b) One word of caution: If your system is configured to access the oracle database via SQL Net, then you have to change the config, otherwise your test-baan might access by accident the production database.

c) If you also restore $BSE/lib/license6.1, then the test system will automatically access the license server from the life system, which is in most situations absolutely ok. In this case you do not even need to access "Patch objects after system crash" as the tools objects already carry the license of the life server.

d) I recommend not to exp/imp the tools tables or company 000 to "save" you custmizations. You need one leading system in your environment and in my opinion this should be the production server. So before the restore, do the dump of compn. 000 (for backup purposes), then export all customizations via "export DD", restore the system and import the customizations again.

Good luck,

Markus

Hi Markus,
With regards to your point C.
c) If you also restore $BSE/lib/license6.1, then the test system will automatically access the license server from the life system, which is in most situations absolutely ok. In this case you do not even need to access "Patch objects after system crash" as the tools objects already carry the license of the life server.

Are you sure, one doesnt need to run the patch objects?
In my case, i couldnt access any of the tool sessions (on a test server) without running the Patch Objects after System Crash. This was happening even after pointing the license6.1 to a valid production server. Only after running patch objects was i able to run any tools based sessions.

sk

Yes, I am very sure about this. As I did it many times.

Now, if you copy the tools objetcs from the production server and the licence6.1 file points to the old license daemon, then no further activities are required.

Why is this? The validation in Baan consists of two steps:

- validate toolsset, which actually creates the .brand6.1 file in the root dir
- configure application, which writes the license info into the tools objects.

When you copy the tools objects, then you copy the license information. So everything is fine.

When you would execute the "patch objects after system crash", then you actually remove this license info from the tools objects. S that they can be used again in the 30 day trial mode (like after a fresh installation) without a license daemon at all.

Regards

Markus

Thank you all very much for your replies!

My case is not a restore due to a system crash but I just wanted to synchronize the test database with the production database on a monthly basis. Presently both the test and the production servers are running fine without any issues. So I am looking for purely an transactional database synchronization (as we would do it with the sequential dump, but I can not take sequential dumps on the production server due to space limitation).

Any comments again are highly appreciated.

Best Regards,
Shekhar

Shekhar,
When you say that you want to synchronize the test database with the production one, does it mean you are willing to lose any changes that you do on to the Test Server?

Markus,
Going with the BSE copy/DB restore method: After the BSE folder is copied over and the db backup restored, you are left with two different names on the same Test Server. While at the OS level it would be called TestServer and at the DB level, it would be called ProductionServer. How would Baan open at this stage without running Patch Objects?
You mentioned about copying the tool objects... Does it mean copying over BSE folder?

thanks for the clarification...

sk

Shekhar,
Going with the BSE copy/DB restore method: After the BSE folder is copied over and the db backup restored, you are left with two different names on the same Test Server. While at the OS level it would be called TestServer and at the DB level, it would be called ProductionServer. How would Baan open at this stage without running Patch Objects?
You mentioned about copying the tool objects... Does it mean copying over BSE folder?
sk

The whole licensing topic is funny enough not related to the database at all. Yes, during validation you enter the keys from Baan into the according forms, but once validation is finished, Baan only compares what was written/patched in teh tools objects, with the information, which the license daemon reads from the brand file.

So what's written in the database does not matter. When the beshell executes a tools object the following happens:

a) The beshell reads from the tools object the key, which was patched into it.

b) The bshell contacts the license daemon on the server, which is written in $BSE/lib/license6.1

c) The license daemon compares the key given by the bshell with the key stored in the brand6.1 file.

That's it. No database involved.

Regards

Markus

P.S.: All of the above is deduced by myself from many experiments with Baan and does not represent official Baan docs etc.

Thanks Markus.
Have a Test Server job coming up for a client and so will try this out!!

sk

Thanks Sukesh and Markus!

Sukesh, ofcourse I do not want to lose the data about customizations on the test server and hence I had thought about taking a sequential dump of company 000 and then overwrite the restored data of compnay 000 with this dump.

I am not planning to restore the $BSE folder from the production backup tape so that my customization sources and objects on the test server will remain safe. I am planning to restore only /oracle/* files from the backup tape on the test server. As a precaution I am going to take backup of $BSE folder on the test server.

I am doing some more investigations on my side and then will try your suggestions from all you if I decide to use this option and will keep you posted.

Thanks again for your inputs.

Best Regards,
Shekhar

Thanks Sukesh and Markus!

Sukesh, ofcourse I do not want to lose the data about customizations on the test server and hence I had thought about taking a sequential dump of company 000 and then overwrite the restored data of compnay 000 with this dump.

I am not planning to restore the $BSE folder from the production backup tape so that my customization sources and objects on the test server will remain safe. I am planning to restore only /oracle/* files from the backup tape on the test server. As a precaution I am going to take backup of $BSE folder on the test server.

I am doing some more investigations on my side and then will try your suggestions from all you if I decide to use this option and will keep you posted.

Thanks again for your inputs.

Best Regards,
Shekhar
Hi Folks,

Sorry, I was away for a while. I just wanted to let you know that I restored /oracle/* files from the backup tape to the test server. It has been working fine for me. It just took couple of hours to restore the data. It would have taken weeks for me to import the sequential dumps of the same size in Baan.

Please note that our production system and test system configuration is same. I am not sure if this is a good & safe method for cases where the production & test system configuration differs.

Thank you all once again for your inputs and help.

Best Regards,
Shekhar