Object Archive System

The Object Archive system, along with your save media, gives you the ability to restore prior versions of libraries, files, source members, documents, programs, object lists, IFS files, and Domino databases. When you need to restore an item, Robot Save helps you find the version you need and then restores it for you automatically. This section describes Robot Save’s Object Archive system. You’ll see how you can restore a library, file, document, IFS file, or Domino database by selecting it from the object archive records.

Robot Save provides two restoration systems. One system uses the Guided System Restoration Procedures to restore the entire system. The other system, the Object Archive system, is for restoration on a smaller scale, such as when a file is ruined or deleted accidentally. The two restoration systems are independent of each other.

An Object Archive is optional; you can choose to create an archive for the rotations in a backup set on the Backup Set Information panel. This allows you to specify whether or not to create an object archive, or whether to create an object archive only for items that have been flagged. For example, you probably won’t want to create an archive for purchased or test programs because you are not developing new versions of these programs. However, if you are backing up object lists created through Robot Corral, you should have an object archive because, without archive records, you cannot restore objects saved using an object list. And, for large system saves, such as a NONSYS, you can choose to flag only individual libraries (using the Modify Library Save Information panel) for an archive, while not archiving others.

Robot Save creates the object archive after the backup session has completed. At the end of the save session, it submits a job to create the archive records. You can stop the archive job if you don’t want it to run at that time. You then can resubmit the job at a later time to complete the archive.

The Object Archive system has two components:

  • Save media volumes containing the objects saved by a backup set.

  • Indexes over the saved objects. You search these indexes for a saved object using the Object Archive display panels.

Once you find the object you want to restore, Robot Save:

  • Tells you which media volumes to mount.

  • Searches for the object on the media volumes and restores it automatically.

Why You Need an Object Archive

If every employee were perfect, never made mistakes, and could predict the future, you would not need an object archive. Since this isn’t the case, your Object Archive allows you to recover when:

  • A new batch update program ruins a file.

  • You discover an operator cleared the wrong file a week ago.

  • An object is logically damaged after a power failure.

  • A programmer radically changed a source member, but now wants to return to an earlier version.

  • A source member is corrupted. You need to know when it was changed and what the code was before the change.

  • A file in a directory from a Domino server was deleted accidentally.

Robot Save’s Object Archive system is object destruction insurance. It helps you find the object and version you need and then restores it for you.