Node Maintenance

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A regular schedule of CorporateTime Server node maintenance is the best protection against unscheduled down time and loss of data. By following the procedures outlined below, an administrator will minimize problems and ensure the smooth and uninterrupted running of the CorporateTime application within his enterprise.

This chapter outlines the following maintenance tasks:

• Maintenance procedures
• Back up and restore
• Shutdowns

Maintenance procedures

Daily monitoring procedures

The following system monitoring procedures should be performed on a daily basis:

• Check that all relevant daemons/services are operational.

Cmd line

The unistatus script displays the current status of CorporateTime Server. See Appendix G for complete instructions and syntax.

NT

Open Properties from the Services menu. You will find the CorporateTime Services listed in the Services display box with a flag indicating the service as "started" or no entry signifying that the service is stopped.

• Check that ample space is left on the /users/unison directory or file system. See Appendix A for more information on calculating the storage requirements for your node.
• Verify that the previous night's backup has run.
• Search for unusual entries in the log files in the /users/unison/log directory. This task can be automated by "grep"ing/searching the log files for specific errors and e-mailing the results to the CorporateTime administrator.
• Check for recent writes to the /users/unison/log/dbv.log. This file is created only if there is a problem and should be manually removed once the problem is resolved. If the file is present and is not empty, you might analyze the contents and utilize the unidbfix utility (contact CS&T support for the most current version) or consult your support provider.

NT

Windows NT's Performance Monitor tool can be used to chart or log the performance and activity of the CorporateTime Server services; while Windows NT's Event Viewer records any problems in running the application.

Daily maintenance procedures

A nightly backup of the CorporateTime database (/users/unison/db/ ) and configuration files (/users/unison/misc/) is your best protection against database corruption which may occur as a result of a power failure or disk crashes. While database corruption is rare, even under the aforementioned conditions, nightly backups serve as a safeguard in the event that your database cannot be restored. See "Back up and Restore" below for more information.

Monthly maintenance procedures

The following system maintenance procedures should be done after hours on a monthly basis:

• Verify the consistency of the CorporateTime Server database(s) using the unidbfix utility. Contact CS&T support for the most current version of this comprehensive database maintenance and repair utility.
• Archive the log files. Remember to shut down the CorporateTime Server before archiving the log files and to restart the CorporateTime Server once the task is completed.

Other maintenance procedures

• Run unidssync as required to ensure that the information in the CorporateTime node(s) is synchronized with that in the directory server. Although this utility should be run as part of a regular maintenance programme, it is especially important in the following cases:
  • If other applications using the directory server have modified attributes used by the CorporateTime Server.
  • If [ENG] dac_itemget=FALSE is in the /users/unison/misc/unison.ini file.
  • If [ENG] dac_dirdownfailover=TRUE is in the /users/unison/misc/unison.ini file.

    See the unidssync utility in Appendix G for complete instructions on the use and syntax of this utility. Alternatively, this functionality may be accessed through the Directory Maintenance dialogue box of the CorporateTime Server Administrator.

• Run unidsdiff to detect and resolve any discrepancies in the mapping between users and resources in the directory server with those in the CorporateTime node. This synchronization procedure should be performed whenever a batch of changes, in particular the deletion of users, is made to the CorporateTime node. See the unidsdiff utility in Appendix G for complete instructions on the use and syntax of this utility. Alternatively, this functionality may be accessed through the Directory Maintenance dialogue box of the CorporateTime Server Administrator.
• The utility unirmold, documented in Appendix G, should be used as needed to remove all events and tasks that are older than a specified value from a CorporateTime Server node.
• To view the elapsed time and CPU statistics for each client connection, set the parameter stats = TRUE under [ENG] in the /users/unison/misc/unison.ini file. When a client connection is closed, stats results are appended to the /users/unison/log/stats.log file. After analysis, set stats = FALSE to disable logging.

Back up and restore

CorporateTime Server provides the functionality to perform `hot' or on-line backups. This capability is important in the context of installations requiring 24 hour access to their calendar data. To minimize inconsistencies should a restore be necessary, it is strongly recommended that directory server backups be made at the same time as CorporateTime Server backups. In addition, backups should be made during periods of low user activity.

During an on-line backup, the following behaviour should be noted:

• clients connected when the backup is initiated are permitted to log off
• clients not connected when the backup is initiated are not permitted to log on
• currently logged-on users may view but not modify their agenda
• if more than one node exists on a host, each node is locked and backed up in succession

The unidbbackup utility is used to perform on-line backups while unidbrestore is the complementary utility used for database restoration. See Appendix G for complete instructions on the use and syntax of both utilities.

To back up a CorporateTime Server host:

• Execute the unidbbackup utility either through the command line or using the Database Backup dialogue box of the CorporateTime Server Administrator. A backup will be made of all CorporateTime database and configuration files on your CorporateTime Server. If more than one node exists on the host, each node will be locked and backed up one at a time.

To restore a CorporateTime Server host:

1. Shut down the CorporateTime Server following the procedure outlined in the following section.
2. Run unidbrestore to restore the backup. Your CorporateTime database and configuration files will be restored to the /users/unison directory on the CorporateTime host.

Warning

This operation restores only the CorporateTime database and configuration files. CorporateTime data stored in the directory server must be restored separately. If you have any reason to expect that inconsistencies may exist between the data in the CorporateTime Server and that in the directory server, use the utilities unidsdiff and unidssync to identify and resolve all discrepancies. See Appendix G for complete instructions on the use and syntax of these utilities.

Archived backups should be managed to ensure full data recovery capabilities without sacrificing large amounts of disk space. Remove backups which are no longer needed.

Shutdowns

It is occasionally necessary to shut down CorporateTime Server for maintenance procedures, operating system or hardware problems, anticipated electrical failures etc. All CorporateTime Server daemons / services must be stopped for a complete shutdown. Use one of the following methods to shut down the CorporateTime Server:

Cmd line

From the command line execute unistop. For full instructions on the use of this utility, see Appendix G.

Admin GUI

The CorporateTime Server Administrator can be used to control the services on the local host only:

1. Select Services | Properties to open the Local Services dialogue box
2. Select CorporateTime Lock Manager and click Stop to bring down all services in one action
3. Click Close

NT

From the Services Control Panel (Start Menu | Settings | Control Panel | Services), stop the CorporateTime Server services: CorporateTime Engine, CorporateTime Lock Manager, CorporateTime Corporate-Wide Services, CorporateTime Synchronous Network Connections and CorporateTime Directory Access Server (uniengd, unilckd, unicwsd, unisncd and unidasd). The CorporateTime Directory Access Server (unidasd) is present only in installations using an LDAP directory server.

Warning

As a result of the number of user connections, the number of processes running, and the volume of network traffic, CorporateTime Server may take over a minute to stop.