Assure MIMIX for AIX performs a production data restore by writing reverse block incremental data directly into the raw Logical Volumes (LVs) of the Production Volume Set (PVS), rolling those LVs back in time as a single consistency group. The PVS is treated as a consistency group since it encapsulates the entire storage footprint of the protected application. The application's referential data integrity is always maintained.
All block I/O during the restore occurs at the Logical Volume Manager (LVM) layer, below all file systems and/or databases associated with the protected application. In Assure MIMIX for AIX, the reverse block incremental data is recorded in odd numbered LFCs, the Before Image Log File.
Containers (BILFCs), which are also raw LVs and reside on the backup/recovery server, or in external tape archives, if any.
The length of the restore window is a function of how many BILFCs are available to Assure MIMIX for AIX, the size of the BILFC, and the average application write rate. Tape archives are used to extend the restore window.
During a restore, the PVS LVs must be opened exclusively for writing by Assure MIMIX for AIX. No other application may have the LVs opened for writing. All associated databases and file systems must be unmounted.
Two agent daemons work together to perform a production restore. On the production server, the Log Creation Agent (LCA) receives BILFC transmissions and makes the BILFC writes to the PVS. On the backup/recovery server, the Restore Server (RS) handles the extraction of LFCs from either the Assured Backup Agent (ABA) or the Archive Agent (AA) if available, and the transmission of those BILFCs to LCA.
Prior to a production restore, LCA (scrt_lca) and ABA (scrt_aba) must be running in daemon mode. If external tape archiving is enabled, AA (scrt_aa) should also be running in daemon mode. RC (scrt_rc) will spawn RS (scrt_rs) automatically, and stop RS automatically at the conclusion of the restore.