Coded backup

Upgraded iPhone 3GS from iOS 4.3.2 to 6.1 (if I remember well...). Before upgrading, I made a backup; it was the first time I did a change of iOS... The option to code the backup was already ticked... I did not knew exactly what that meant... In the end, the operating system has been changed, but the backup is unrecoverable because it is blocked by a password that I did not put in !! ... and of cours I do not know what kind of pw it could be !! I used iTunes, through a Windows 7 pc. Anyone knowing how to get access to the encrypted backup ? Or if Apple is able, in any way, to recover these datas ? Thanks everyone for any help.

Having spent a week or so solidly eliminating old, unwanted emails, I then spent hours trying to follow your demo's instructions for how to get into EagleFiler 1.4.14. Eventually I didn't feel the risk of logging in and out, with attendant chance of going up some tricky blind alley, warranted it. So I've used the Save As/burn to CD route suggested by "L" which is simpler to implement. For a computer- inexperienced oldie like me, with no access to colleagues/helplines &c to keep me right, I felt your instructions were slightly scary, e.g. "You may need to log out and then log in..." - how to know in advance if one does or does not need to do this? For me, the instructions need to be spelled out in smaller steps, rather than assuming we know, e.g., how to "create a new library from the File menu" - but I didn't go to your Help menu, I admit. Sorry to be such a wimp!

Similar Messages

How can I keep a backup copy of my iTunes library with tracks not coded and scrambled

I have about 80GB in my iTunes library and would like to keep a backup copy of all the music in folders under composers, without them being scrambled or any the numbers which are automatically placed in front of each track, which is what happens if I drag and drop them from iTunes. How can I achieve this?

Thaks for trying but this isn't relevant. I'm not refering to CDs or importing material. I have an iTunes library with nearly 20,000 tracks in it. It is also backed up with a straight copy of the entire works.
What I want to do is back up the whole lot in a package containing only the music under it's name and it's original track numbers. I can show best what I mean by dragging and dropping just two piano concertos out into an external folder.
e.g.
if this how they apper in my itunes play list
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2 - 1. (Allegro con brio)
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2 - 2. (Adagio)
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2 - 3. (Rondo_ Molto allegro)
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 - 1. Allegro Con Brio
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 - 2. Largo
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 - 3. Rondo_ Allegro
What I get when I drag these out into a folder on an expernal drive (or even on the desk top of my iMac) is this
01 Beethoven_ Piano Concerto No. 2 - 1. (Allegro con brio).m4a
01 Beethoven_ Piano Concerto No. 3 - 1. Allegro Con Brio.m4a
02 Beethoven_ Piano Concerto No. 2 - 2. (Adagio).m4a
02 Beethoven_ Piano Concerto No. 3 - 2. Largo.m4a
03 Beethoven_ Piano Concerto No. 2 - 3. (Rondo_ Molto allegro).m4a
03 Beethoven_ Piano Concerto No. 3 - 3. Rondo_ Allegro.m4a
You can imagine what a mess this is when I drag 20,000 tracks into an external backup folder. All the track ones (several thousand of them) of every piece in the entire collection will be listed first. And then all the track 2s.
I can't sort that out.
If there is a solution I think it possibly lies in the iTunes preference options. There is one, but I daren't try it for fear of unscrabbling the whole iTunes library and completely throwing all the play lists, folders and everything into a total unsorted mess. I refer to the tick box in the iTunes preference folder 'Keep iTunes media folder organised (places files into album and artist folders and names the files based on disk number, track number and song title)'
If I untick this would I unscramble years of carefully sorting disks as I imported them?

**Tech explanation why BACKUPS take long, how to make it very short, etc*

I noticed my backups to increase quite a bit over the last few days. I also noticed so many posts on why are backups taking so long, what can I do (only solution given is to click x or modify so that backups are not done, etc). Well to answer all those that want the "real" answer, I decided to do a few minutes of research and share what I've learned. I have seen nothing at all on google or anywhere else about the recommendations I'm suggesting, but from my experience I think it will answer 99% of all the backup threads on this site.
All your backups are being stored in:
XP: C:\Documents and Settings\(Your Name)\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
Vista: C:\Users\*Your User*\Appdata\Local\Apple Computer\
Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup
The main directories are GUIDs that are based on the version of the iphone, so you may see more than one folder. Make sure to view the date last modified of the folder to make sure you go into the latest one. Order the files inside this directory by date modified. Here you can see how many files are being updated ON EVERY BACKUP. The older ones are not being backed up anymore because you probably uninstalled that app on the iphone (apple doesn't delete old unnecessary backup files that won't be ever used - bad programming #1). They are encoding all these files and inside the files in base 64, so you can decrypt them to view the contents, but you don't really need to and I don't have to show how for the solution to this. Open a file in wordpad. Within the first few lines you'll get an idea of what the backup is.
So here is the solution....sort these files by date modified. My biggest single file was 29,582KB!! looked inside and it's the WeDict app. There are other files from WeDict, but obviously for me if I want fast backups I need to get rid of this app. A few other top files I found are awesome apps on the iphone that have awesome trailers, intro movies for games, etc. Well guess what, they backup every single game intro, trailer, etc. So for instance, the game tap tap tap has a few m4a songs....well every one of those m4a songs are encrypted and backed up EVERY TIME (apple backups up files that don't need to be backed up which would probably reduce backup times by at least 98% - for instance, intro movies don't need to be backed up, nor app songs, nor game instructions, etc because that information should be on itunes backed up separately when you install an app, not when you do backups and it should be smart enough to update that folder when a new version is out....and only do backups on files that can change like high scores in apps, notes, etc - bad programming #2).
So anyway, you can see which apps are taking the most amount of time. Obviously if you remove every app on your iphone, it will backup fast, but some of these apps are shockingly huge. Problem here is that you can have 1 file or 100 files associated with 1 app. You could have only 2 apps installed on your iphone and your backups could be slower than a person having 30 apps just because some apps take a ridiculous amount of more backup data and time and what makes this even worse is every part of the data is encrypted, which I will talk about below (which doesn't need to be). Only time that file is not going to get updated is if it's deleted from your iphone.
You don't HAVE to use base 64 encryption. Come on now, especially on apps? They could lighten the encryption and it would be much faster backups because it has to decode and encode every file now. You are overencrypting these files so huge programs take forever backups. (Bad apple programming #3 don't over encrypt when speed is a necessity on something that doesn't need extreme high security).
As a developer with a computer engineering degree, to also make it even faster than what users were experiencing with backup times prior 2.0. They are obviously not tagging each portion that needs to be backed up individually. Lots of software companies do this to speed stuff up. For instance if you have Kaspersky antivirus with the defaults, the first scan will always take long, but every scan afterwords will be fast because instead of rescanning that file for a virus, it just checks to see if the checksum has changed and if so rescan that file, so most of the time the scan will happen fast unless there has been a period of time that you haven't done one that updates the checksums. They could do something very similar with this. So basically even if you changed a few things on your phone, the backup should be only a few seconds because only those few changes would be signaled to be rebacked up. (bad apple programming for backups #4). This process can make backups be from 98% faster to 99.98% faster....meaning having a backup only take 4 seconds even with 100 apps installed. Actually coding this one thing would make it extremely fast, but would take the most programming time. You can even make an algorithem where for the whole backup process it would just have to read one file that it would check checksums and then tell it to modify 1 or 2 other files and that's it as opposed to backing up (for me almost 5,000 files) some being several MB in size.
So all the above should give apple suggestions on how the can speedup backups by 99.98% faster than how they are doing it now and then anwers all those questions why it takes longer, what needs to change, how can I shorten my backups (this way you can find out what apps are taking the most time), etc.
The problem here is apps will continue to grow, become larger, more trailers, movies, songs embedded inside apps, etc. This problem is only going to grow. The additional problem is that they can say they have tweaked the backup programming to make it faster, just like they did in 2.0.1, but backups seem slower because there are newer better more awesome apps out!! Well that's why it doesn't look like it's faster but it's slower! They will keep doing this as opposed to solving the root of the problem by recoding the whole backup foundation as I'm suggesting from above. Backups will forever take longer and longer and longer and longer. That is what you have to look forward to. My guess is that they are not going to fix the foundation of how backups are done anytime soon having a good idea how they are doing this one. They would have to do a massive overhaul of the whole backup code, which basically they would have to admit that all the time coding this way was a waste and they see no profit from it and we deal with it just by pressing x sometimes. We can complain all we want, but for awhile if you don't want long backups, this is the real solution. What's funny is writing this email took much more time than figuring out what apple is doing, but I think this will help many apple iphone users. Let me know what you guys think.

Supposedly apple made backups slightly faster on 2.0.1, but like I said in my original posting above...it will get worse and worse because of the apps.
Just to verify and you could do this yourself. Right before you plug in to sync and it auto starts the backup process do this...go to the folder where all the files are as mentioned above, sort it by date modified. Add a refresh button on the toolbar. Then start the sync/backup, keep refreshing and you see the files getting updated. There are even temporary files apple's backup process creates that you don't see that keeps adding to a file, so even if you see one file updated, you might see it updated a few times until the whole backup for that file completes.
Here are my stats:
For me this time it took 27 minutes (earlier it took 2 minutes, but like i said with updates to apps, more apps, depending on types of apps, your computer speed, etc it will increase.
For me: In 27 minutes, it updated 1707 files with a total size of 82.8MB. There are a ton of computers that are much faster than mine that I'm sure would cut the minutes down. I have 6 pages of apps, but like I mention above, that doesn't matter because you could have one app that has 400 files with a large size. I would be interested in others posting their results, maybe in this format:
27min 1707files 82.8MB Pentium4HT Antivirus and other large programs running in background.
If you are interested you can even download program that will decrypt these files so you can view them in more detail...for mac, for instance, there is something like this: http://mac.softpedia.com/get/iPhone-Applications/Tools-Utilities/iPhone-Backup-D ecoder.shtml It allows you to backup and modify. It may help you decide what is taking your backups so long and you can decide if it's worth having that app installed versus not having a good backup. You can also pick out you sms backup file, contacts backup file, etc for those really interested in having backups of those specific files.
Hope this helps clear up things for everyone.

2007 Macbook Pro suddenly coding over files, pictures, deleting itunes and iphoto albums, after it had been dropped in late november 2010. Apple specialists say they cannot find anything wrong. HELP!

I have a Macbook Pro, the last generation, not the most recent one. It fell about 2 feet in late November 2010 and had the screen and logicboard replaced right after. A day or two after that, I started to notice that my word documents, pictures files, pdf files, itunes library and iphoto library were coded over and deleted out of nowhere. When I click on it, it says it is not a compatible format or cannot be read, etc. However, this doesn't happen all the time and not with every file. I could open a new word document and begin it today, and tomorrow it will not be retreavable, but I have a document on my desktop that has been there since January and can still be opened, so this happens without warning.
I have taken it in to the Genius Bar at my local Apple store several times with this problem, and they say they cannot see anything wrong with my computer. On my most recent visit, the lady told me to buy an external hardrive, transfer everything onto it, then do a complete clean out of my computer and reboot it I guess. If it doesn't continue, then that might have been the problem, but if it does continue, then it is obviously not that. I am really confused and I don't know if I should trust that this is the problem or just go ahead and buy a new computer all together. I don't have applecare anymore.
Help me!!! I am desperate.

Does your MBP still have its original hard drive? If so, it may have started to go south. The average useful life of a notebook drive is 3-5 years, and if yours is the original, it would be about 4 years old. The drop could also have affected it.
It might be worth booting from your install disc and repairing your boot disk. It sounds like you could have some directory issues. Repair until there is nothing left to repair. If Disk Utility cannot repair the drive, you will need a stronger utility like Disk Warrior or possibly a new drive.
It also sounds like you may have some software corruption, which can happen if you have hard drive problems. Have you tried reinstalling the OS? You would want to make a backup first on an external drive and then use the archive and install feature and then update the OS.
You might want to download and run SMART Utility:
http://www.volitans-software.com/smart_utility.php
You can download the demo and run it several times for free. SMART Utility seems to be somewhat more critical than Disk Utility, and may be able to detect impending drive failure sooner.
If the drive checks out OK, then you can follow the advice you got from the genius and make a clone of your boot drive using Super Duper or carbon Copy Cloner on the external drive. You could boot from the clone you made and see how your Mac does when booted from a different drive. If all is good, you can reformat the internal drive and clone back to it.
If all you need is a replacement hard drive, then your Mac is likely worth fixing. I too have a 2007 MBP, and I replaced my hard drive right after Applecare expired, as the drive started to fail a week after Applecare ran out. I put in a Western Digital 500 GB 7200 RPM Scorpio Black, and have been running on it ever since. I have also upped my RAM to 6 GB and my OS to Lion. Not all the features of Lion work on a 2007 MBP--the trackpad does not support Gestures, and AirDrop is not supported. Even so, I expect this Mac to last me a few more years.
iFixit has instructions for replacing the hard drive, and OWC has both good RAM and kits for hard drive replacements. My gut feeling is that your hard drive is behind the weird symptoms you are experiencing.
If you are ready for a new computer, by all means get one--there are some great choices. However, you should be able to fix your old Mac for not very much money and get some more use out of it.
Good luck!

DB13, Error while backup

Hello
I am trying to schedule Whole offline backup through DB13 in Solution Manager 4.
The backup kicks off at the schedule time but ends with error with in seconds.
When i go and check the background job in SM37, the Job DBA:ALLOFFLINE______@174008/4000 is with Finished successfully status
I check the JOB log in DB13,
21:00:00     Job started
21:00:00     Step 001 started (program RSDBAJOB, variant &0000000000000, user ID XYZ)
21:00:00     Execute logical command BRBACKUP On host DQESAP03
21:00:00     Parameters:-u / -jid ALLOF20090401210000 -c force -t offline_force -m all -p initDBI.sap -w use_dbv
21:00:01     Job finished
I go to Action log in DB13
Status is in Error
Return code is 003 Error during initialization.
when i go to detail action log:-
BRBACKUP Action Log for Database <DBSID>
From:   01.04.2009 20:40:09
LogFile:   beagpiht.afd
Return Code:   0003 Error during initialization
No action log for this action found in the database
Check the detail log
There are no logs created at OS level /oracle/SID/sapbackup
I then started the backup usning BRTOOLS at os level and Backup is successful.
Please suggest what could be the problem.
Thanks

>
Subhajit Sengupta wrote:
> I think you need to manitain the BRBACKUP command in table SDBAC to be able to run a backup from DB13.
OK, putting my 5cents
1) I do not think the recommendation is good.
Table SDBAC should only be "touched" if indicated by an SAP note.
2) at the same time, I think it may be part of the problem.
The OP states:
> I am trying to schedule Whole offline backup
also
> background job in SM37, the Job DBA:ALLOFFLINE___
and finaly, the command executed is:
> Parameters:-u / -jid ALLOF20090401210000 -c force -t offline_force -m all -p initDBI.sap -w use_dbv
That is an OFFLINE backup plus a verification.
AFAIK, that is not a standard SAP JOB.
I assume that someone has changed the entry in SDBAC introducing this "new" action.
DB13 does not have coded such action, therefore it is not able to find it on the "control" tables and also it is not able to find the log.
Advise
1) check if someone changed that entry
2) check if there any "beagpiht*" log file in your system
3) do not play with SDBAC
Another option would be that you are in a MCOD database. Is that the case?

Is there a way to restore the earlier color-coding format?

If there is a workaround to restore the earlier color-tag format, I would love to know it.
In the alternative, I've submitted the following to Apple and wanted to share it with the community also, in case there is no workaround and others would like to add their voice in addressing the issue:
The new single-dot color coding of tags in Mavericks doesn't work for me AT ALL.
I have been relying on Apple's full-width color coding for quite some time because it could help me easily discern—at a glance—different file versions, project statuses, and other workflow particulars—without having to read the filenames' text. In other words, it's been a convenient right-brain workflow.
The key here, of course, is the idea of "easily" and "at a glance." The new Mavericks color coding both extends and confounds my workflow—I now must do an additional visual search of any given list of files, especially because my filenames are often long (informational) and their middle section (in the column view) is likely truncated to conform to Apple's default narrow column formatting.
The purpose and point of color coding is to reduce time and complexity and aid organization. However, the Mavericks version now requires (1) doing a visual scan of an entire column of filenames, instead of a visual "grab" of whole bands of color without any need to read the filenames, (2) locating the color dots at the ends of those column lines and making sure they correlate with the proper text (left-brain/right-brain work instead of just staying right-brain), (3) making a color comparison of extremely small fields of color (tiny dots instead of full-wide bands), and (4) implementing a visual/mental check step to ascertain that that a particular color dot is the correct one. Because of the added confusion of having to do "manual" left-to-right visual placement, it becomes necessary to add the step of expanding the filenames (column widths) to get certainty.
I'm guessing that at this early point in the Mavericks proliferation you'll likely want to dig your heels in to defend and preserve all the involved and extensive work you did to produce the update, but I strongly urge you to revisit the particular design decision mentioned here. It makes it tougher for us out here using the program, and it works against your PR efforts: I'm now less likely to trust your design decisions and will be much less likely to implement future updates or champion them.
If I could uninstall Mavericks and get my previous version back, just for this one item alone, I would. It's been a mainstay feature for me, and one of the things I've lauded to non-Mac users to encourage them to venture Apple.

Downgrade Mavericks to Your Previous System
For Lion or Mountain Lion
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to a Mountain Lion Installer app or USB flash drive installer:
   Partition and Format the hard drive
      1. Select the target volume you wish to use.
      2. Select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu in the menubar.
      3. In Disk Utility select the target volume from the left side list. Click on the
          Partition tab in the Disk Utility main window. Set the Partition Scheme to one
          (1) from the drop down menu. Set the Format type to Mac OS Extended,
          Journaled. Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
          Quit Disk Utility and return to the main menu. Quit the Main Menu to return to
          the installer.
Install Lion/Mountain Lion: Select install Lion or Mountain Lion and click on the Install button. .
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
For Snow Leopard or Earlier
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard (see below.) I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner.
If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups made while on Snow Leopard, then you may do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion/Mountain Lion files.

Aperture 3 Crashed; Can't relocate Masters despite time machine backup

I recently had a major crash of my OS system 10.6.8. Not sure what happened, but essentially had to rebuild the directory with Diskwarrior. When I tried to open Aperture 3, I received an error message and the inability to open Aperture. After searching through the forums and the internet I essentially reinstalled Aperture 3 with the trial version and updated it to the most recent version. My plugins (Nik Software) are no longer in Aperture as I thought this might have been part of the problem. Nonetheless, I am missing a good deal of my projects from 2011. I get the YELLOW TRIANGLE and the message that the master is not there. So, I have rebuilt the database library (using command-option) and now Aperture is reporting that the images in those projects never existed. NOW, I have fortunately been using time machine to backup regularly. However, when I go back to a recent backup and restore of the Aperture library, those projects are still missing!
I am going insane thinking about this pictures and the missing data. Shouldn't Time Machine saved the all the files prior to the crash? Is there some place/other locations that I should be RESTORING besides the Aperture Library?
I look forward to hearing from you guys and everyone's suggestions, because I am driving myself crazy!

thanks for the reply Frank:
Masters. I do not know. I left it as the default. I assume that means managed?
Error message was the LONG error code with the jist of it being related to what sounds like a PLUGIN error. I don't have the EXACT coding right now as I am not home. I've googled the code +/- other stuff on it and according to discussions here and elsewhere (albeit all archived), it looks like it was related to my plugins.
as far as the restore is concerned, I am POSITIVE that the restored library was the NEW library not the original. But keep in mind, Time Machine only lets me restore the backup to the exact place where the file was before. I am just worried that somehow Time Machine backup hosed my Aperture library somewhere along the way. This is why I was wondering if there is something else I need to restore with my time machine backup besides the library file/database itself?
Thanks for the quick reply.

RMAN-05556: not all datafiles have backups that can be recovered to SCN

Oracle 11.2.0.2 SE-One
Oracle Linux 5.6 x86-64
Weekly refresh of a test db from prod, using rman DUPLICATE DATABASE, failed with “RMAN-05556: not all datafiles have backups that can be recovered to SCN”
Background Summary:
Weekly inc 0 backup of production starts on Sunday at 0100, normally completes around 1050. Includes backups of archivelogs
Another backup of just archivelogs runs on Sunday at 1200, normally completes NLT 1201.
On the test server, the refresh job starts on Sunday at 1325. In the past this script used a set until time \"to_date('`date +%Y-%m-%d` 11:55:00','YYYY-MM-DD hh24:mi:ss')\"; -- hard-coded for ‘today at 11:55’.
For a variety of reasons I decided to replace this semi-hard coding of the UNTIL with a value determined by querying the rman catalog, getting the completion time of the inc 0 backup. This tested out just fine in my vbox lab, even when I deliberately drove some updates and log switches during the period the backup was running. But the first time to go live I got the above reported error.
Details:
The key part of the inc 0 backup is this (run from a shell script)
export BACKUP_LOC=/u01/backup/dbprod
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/rman target=/ catalog rman/***@rmcat<<EOF
configure backup optimization on;
configure default device type to disk;
configure retention policy to recovery window of 2 days;
crosscheck backup;
crosscheck archivelog all;
delete noprompt force obsolete;
delete noprompt force expired backup;
delete noprompt force expired archivelog all;
configure controlfile autobackup on;
configure controlfile autobackup format for device type disk to '$BACKUP_LOC/%d_%F_ctl.backup';
CONFIGURE CHANNEL DEVICE TYPE DISK FORMAT   '$BACKUP_LOC/%U.rman' MAXPIECESIZE 4096 M;
sql "alter system archive log current";
show all;
backup as compressed backupset archivelog all delete all input format "$BACKUP_LOC/%U.alog";
backup as compressed backupset incremental level 0 database tag tag_dbprod;
sql "alter system archive log current";
backup as compressed backupset archivelog all delete all input format "$BACKUP_LOC/%U.alog";
list recoverable backup;
EOF
The archivelog-only backup (runs at noon) looks like this:
export BACKUP_LOC=/u01/backup/dbprod
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/rman target=/ catalog rman/***@rmcat<<EOF
configure backup optimization on;
configure default device type to disk;
configure retention policy to recovery window of 2 days;
crosscheck backup;
crosscheck archivelog all;
delete noprompt force obsolete;
delete noprompt force expired backup;
delete noprompt force expired archivelog all;
configure controlfile autobackup on;
configure controlfile autobackup format for device type disk to '$BACKUP_LOC/%d_%F_ctl.backup';
CONFIGURE CHANNEL DEVICE TYPE DISK FORMAT   '$BACKUP_LOC/%U.rman' MAXPIECESIZE 4096 M;
sql "alter system archive log current";
show all;
backup as compressed backupset archivelog all delete all input format "$BACKUP_LOC/%U.alog";
list recoverable backup;
EOF
And the original refresh looked like this:
>> a step to ftp the backups from the prod server to the test server, and some other housekeeping <<, then
cd /backup/dbtest
echo "connect catalog rman/***@rmcat" > /backup/dbtest/dbtest_refresh.rman
echo "connect target sys/*******@dbprod" >> /backup/dbtest/dbtest_refresh.rman
echo "connect auxiliary /"             >> /backup/dbtest/dbtest_refresh.rman
echo "run {"                           >> /backup/dbtest/dbtest_refresh.rman
echo "set until time \"to_date('`date +%Y-%m-%d` 11:55:00','YYYY-MM-DD hh24:mi:ss')\";" >> /backup/dbtest/dbtest_refresh.rman
echo "duplicate target database to DBTEST;" >> /backup/dbtest/dbtest_refresh.rman
echo "}" >> /backup/dbtest/dbtest_refresh.rman
So, my mod to the refresh was
bkup_point=`sqlplus -s rman/***@rmcat <<EOF1
set echo off verify off feedback off head off pages 0 trimsp on
select to_char(max(completion_time),'yyyy-mm-dd hh24:mi:ss')
from rc_backup_set_details
where db_name='DBPROD'
and backup_type='D'
and incremental_level=0
exit
EOF1`
cd /backup/dbtest
echo "connect catalog rman/***@rmcat"     > /backup/dbtest/dbtest_refresh.rman
echo "connect target sys/*******@dbprod"    >> /backup/dbtest/dbtest_refresh.rman
echo "connect auxiliary /"                >> /backup/dbtest/dbtest_refresh.rman
echo "run {"                              >> /backup/dbtest/dbtest_refresh.rman
echo "set until time \"to_date('${bkup_point}','YYYY-MM-DD hh24:mi:ss')\";" >> /backup/dbtest/dbtest_refresh.rman
echo "duplicate target database to DBTEST;" >> /backup/dbtest/dbtest_refresh.rman
echo "}"                                  >> /backup/dbtest/dbtest_refresh.rman
Now the fun begins.
First, an echo in the refresh script confirmed the ‘bkup_point’:
=======================================================
We will restore to 2013-08-25 10:41:38
=======================================================
Internally, rman reset the ‘until’ as follows:
executing command: SET until clause
Starting Duplicate Db at 25-Aug-2013 15:35:44
allocated channel: ORA_AUX_DISK_1
channel ORA_AUX_DISK_1: SID=162 device type=DISK
contents of Memory Script:
   set until scn 45633141350;
Examining the result of LIST BACKUP (the last step of all of my rman scripts) the full backup shows this:
BS Key Type LV Size       Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time
5506664 Full 61.89M     DISK        00:00:03     25-Aug-2013 02:11:32
        BP Key: 5506678   Status: AVAILABLE Compressed: NO Tag: TAG20130825T021129
Piece Name: /u01/backup/dbprod/DBPROD_c-3960114099-20130825-00_ctl.backup
SPFILE Included: Modification time: 24-Aug-2013 22:33:08
SPFILE db_unique_name: DBPROD
Control File Included: Ckp SCN: 45628880455   Ckp time: 25-Aug-2013 02:11:29
BS Key Type LV Size       Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time
5507388 Incr 0 206.03G    DISK        08:30:00     25-Aug-2013 10:41:30
List of Datafiles in backup set 5507388
File LV Type Ckp SCN    Ckp Time             Name
1    0 Incr 45628880495 25-Aug-2013 02:11:38 +SMALL/dbprod/datafile/system.258.713574775
>>>>>>>>> snip lengthy list <<<<<<<<<
74   0 Incr 45628880495 25-Aug-2013 02:11:38 +SMALL/dbprod/event_i2.dbf
Backup Set Copy #1 of backup set 5507388
Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time      Compressed Tag
DISK        08:30:00     25-Aug-2013 10:41:36 YES        TAG_DBPROD
    List of Backup Pieces for backup set 5507388 Copy #1
    BP Key Pc# Status      Piece Name
    5507391 1   AVAILABLE   /u01/backup/dbprod/eeoi55iq_1_1.rman
    >>>>>>>>>>>>> snip lengthy list <<<<<<<<<<<
    5507442 52 AVAILABLE   /u01/backup/dbprod/eeoi55iq_52_1.rman
Notice the slight difference in time between what is reported in the LIST BACKUP and what was reported by my query to the catalog.
Continuing with the backup list, the second archivelog backup in the script generated six backupsets. The fifth set showed:
BS Key Size       Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time
5507687 650.19M DISK        00:02:18     25-Aug-2013 10:54:53
        BP Key: 5507694   Status: AVAILABLE Compressed: YES Tag: TAG20130825T104156
Piece Name: /u01/backup/dbprod/ekoi643j_1_1.alog
List of Archived Logs in backup set 5507687
Thrd Seq     Low SCN    Low Time             Next SCN   Next Time
1    1338518 45632944587 25-Aug-2013 05:58:18 45632947563 25-Aug-2013 05:58:20
    >>>>>>>>>>>>> snip lengthy list <<<<<<<<<<<
1    1338572 45633135750 25-Aug-2013 10:08:21 45633140240 25-Aug-2013 10:08:24
1    1338573 45633140240 25-Aug-2013 10:08:24 45633141350 25-Aug-2013 10:30:06
1    1338574 45633141350 25-Aug-2013 10:30:06 45633141705 25-Aug-2013 10:41:51
1    1338575 45633141705 25-Aug-2013 10:41:51 45633141725 25-Aug-2013 10:41:55
Notice the availability of the archivelogs including the referenced scn.
Investigation of the ftp portion of the refresh script confirmed that all backup pieces were copied from the prod server.
So what am I overlooking? Having reverted back to the original script to get the refresh completed,

HemantKChitale wrote:
So, technically, you only need the database and archivelogs backed up by the database script and not the noon run of the archivelog backup.
backup as compressed backupset archivelog all delete all input format "$BACKUP_LOC/%U.alog";
backup as compressed backupset incremental level 0 database tag tag_dbprod;
sql "alter system archive log current";
backup as compressed backupset archivelog all delete all input format "$BACKUP_LOC/%U.alog";
Yet, why does backupset 5 of the noon archivelog backup show archivelogs from 10:30 to 10:40 if they had been deleted by the database backup script which has a delete input ? It is as if the database backup script did NOT delete the archivelogs and the noon run was the one to backup the archivelogs (again ?)
No, that is from the morning full backup. Note the 'Completion Time" of 25-Aug-2013 10:54:53
However, the error message seems to point to a datafile. Why would reverting the recovery point to 11:55 make a difference, I wonder.
As do I.
Also puzzling to me are the times associated with the completion of the backups. I don't recall ever having to scrutinize a backup listing this closely so I'm sure it's just a matter of filling in some gaps in my understanding, but I noticed this. The backup report (list backup;) shows this for the inc 0 backup:
BS Key Type LV Size
Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time
5507388 Incr 0 206.03G
DISK
08:30:00
25-Aug-2013 10:41:30   ------- NOTE THE COMPLETION TIME ----
List of Datafiles in backup set 5507388
File LV Type Ckp SCN
Ckp Time
Name
1
0 Incr 45628880495 25-Aug-2013 02:11:38 +SMALL/dbprod/datafile/system.258.713574775
------ SNIP ------
74   0 Incr 45628880495 25-Aug-2013 02:11:38 +SMALL/dbprod/event_i2.dbf
Backup Set Copy #1 of backup set 5507388
Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time
Compressed Tag
DISK
08:30:00
25-Aug-2013 10:41:36 YES
TAG_DBPROD   ------- NOTE THE COMPLETION TIME ----
List of Backup Pieces for backup set 5507388 Copy #1
BP Key Pc# Status
Piece Name
5507391 1   AVAILABLE   /u01/backup/dbprod/eeoi55iq_1_1.rman
------ SNIP ------
5507442 52 AVAILABLE   /u01/backup/dbprod/eeoi55iq_52_1.rman
Then the autobackup of the control file immediatly following:
BS Key Type LV Size
Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time
5507523 Full
61.89M
DISK
00:00:03
25-Aug-2013 10:41:47   ------- NOTE THE COMPLETION TIME ----
BP Key: 5507587   Status: AVAILABLE Compressed: NO Tag: TAG20130825T104144
Piece Name: /u01/backup/dbprod/DBPROD_c-3960114099-20130825-01_ctl.backup
SPFILE Included: Modification time: 25-Aug-2013 05:57:15
SPFILE db_unique_name: DBPROD
Control File Included: Ckp SCN: 45633141671   Ckp time: 25-Aug-2013 10:41:44
Then the archivelog backup immediately following (remember, this created a total of 5 backupset, I'm showing number 4)
BS Key Size
Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time
5507687 650.19M
DISK
00:02:18
25-Aug-2013 10:54:53   ------- NOTE THE COMPLETION TIME ----
BP Key: 5507694   Status: AVAILABLE Compressed: YES Tag: TAG20130825T104156
Piece Name: /u01/backup/dbprod/ekoi643j_1_1.alog
List of Archived Logs in backup set 5507687
Thrd Seq
Low SCN
Low Time
Next SCN   Next Time
1
1338518 45632944587 25-Aug-2013 05:58:18 45632947563 25-Aug-2013 05:58:20
------ SNIP ------
1
1338572 45633135750 25-Aug-2013 10:08:21 45633140240 25-Aug-2013 10:08:24
1
1338573 45633140240 25-Aug-2013 10:08:24 45633141350 25-Aug-2013 10:30:06
1
1338574 45633141350 25-Aug-2013 10:30:06 45633141705 25-Aug-2013 10:41:51
1
1338575 45633141705 25-Aug-2013 10:41:51 45633141725 25-Aug-2013 10:41:55
and the controlfile autobackup immediately following:
BS Key Type LV Size
Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time
5507984 Full
61.89M
DISK
00:00:03
25-Aug-2013 10:55:07   ------- NOTE THE COMPLETION TIME ----
BP Key: 5508043   Status: AVAILABLE Compressed: NO Tag: TAG20130825T105504
Piece Name: /u01/backup/dbprod/DBPROD_c-3960114099-20130825-02_ctl.backup
SPFILE Included: Modification time: 25-Aug-2013 05:57:15
SPFILE db_unique_name: DBPROD
Control File Included: Ckp SCN: 45633142131   Ckp time: 25-Aug-2013 10:55:04
and yet, querying the rman catalog
SQL> select to_char(max(completion_time),'yyyy-mm-dd hh24:mi:ss')
2 from rc_backup_set_details
3 where db_name='DBPROD'
4 and backup_type='D'
5 and incremental_level=0
6 ;
TO_CHAR(MAX(COMPLET
2013-08-25 10:41:38
SQL>
which doesn't match (to the second) the completion time of either the full backup or the associated controlfile autobackp.
Hemant K Chitale
I hope this posts in a readable, understandable manner. I really struggeled with the 'enhanced editor', which I normally use. When I pasted in blocks from the rman report, it kept trying to make some sort of table structure out of it .... guess I'll have to follow that up with a question in the Community forum ....

Tried to edit backup bookmarks html document in Notepad. Saved as html but now lost formatting & links - help!

We've had malware problems so I backed up my hard drive's bookmarks onto our server but now the bookmarks are out of date. I just wanted to update them and save them back as the full web page that I originally had as the backup, so I can import them into the new PC we are about to purchase. Now I think I've ruined the whole thing by opening it in Notepad, editing one of the tags and then saving as an html file. It opens in Firefox but there are no spaces or paragraphs or hyperlinks -- it's now just a mass of text squashed together. I can't find anything about this on the Firefox Help section. What am I doing wrong? I didn't change any of the formatting or coding!

What you could have done is (these options may still be open to you depending on the state of your sytems).
* Saved the bookmarks by exporting them from Firefox (They are not by default exported as HTML - most times HTML may not be wanted)
**see [[backing up and restoring bookmarks]]
* Saved all your [[profiles|profile]] - that holds information including more bookmarks backups - by following instructions
**[[backing up your information]]
Firefox keeps bookmarks, along with History in a database called ''places.squlite'' additionally
*it makes some automated bookmarks backups,
*and also give you an option to manually make backups
* and has a sync facility allowing backup to another device <br/> see [[what is firefox sync?]]
Note if you are trying to combine bookmarks from an older profile and a small set of recent bookmarks (Remembering to always backup bookmarks manually first of all)
# export the new small set as HTML (important to use HTML option not the default .json)
#import the old bookmarks (or even just overwrite the new places.sqlite with the original manually, which is what importing achieves)
#import the HTML using the bookmarks library, and Firefox will append them to the end of the existing bookmarks.
See also [[Importing Bookmarks & Favorites]]

Backup size growing more than expected

I have about 180GB of data on my system and a 500GB volume dedicated to Time Machine. For the past few weeks I've been scanning a lot of old photos, which go into a folder before being imported into iPhoto, and are then deleted from the folder. As expected, the free space on the Time Machine volume steadily decreased as the photos were backed up from the folder and the iPhoto library.
When I started running out of space on the Time Machine volume I deleted all backups of the temp folder, but I only got a fraction of the expected space back. I know I can exclude the above folder from backups if I want, but how do I tell what is taking up the additional space?

There's been some confusion while talking about iPhoto because prior to version '08 the library wasn't a package, it was just a folder. Everyone who has indicated that TimeMachine is only backing up new photos has turned out not to be using the newest version. I'll be honest, I've not taken a look at how iPhoto '08 behaves with Time Machine - I'll put that on my list of things to do - my long list of things to do.
The link you posted makes out that TimeMachine just backs up the changes that occur in a package, not the entire package. It is possible that the engineers have specifically hard coded special treatment for iPhoto, but it makes no sense for TM to just back up changes to packages. That would make rewinding to previous applications, among other things, more difficult than it need be.

Portal backup best practice!!

Hi ,
Can anyone let me know where can i get Portal Backup Best Practices!! We are using SAP EP7.
Thanks,
Raghavendra Pothula

Hi Tim: Here's my basic approach for this -- I create either a portal dynamic page or a stored procedure that renders an HTML parameter form. You can connect to the database and render what ever sort of drop downs, check boxes, etc you desire. To tie everything together, just make sure when you create the form, the names of the fields match that of the page parameters created on the page. This way, when the form posts to the same page, it appends the values for the page parameters to the URL.
By coding the entire form yourself, you avoid the inherent limitations of the simple parameter form. You can also use advanced JavaScript to dynamically update the drop downs based on the values selected or can cause the form to be submitted and update the other drop downs from the database if desired.
Unfortunately, it is beyond the scope of this forum to give you full technical details, but that is the approach I have used on a number of portal sites. Hope it helps!
Rgds/Mark M.

Coded Exported file

Hi
I wish for security reason of user data have option to export (backup) data in coded file so even if somebody would steel the file would not be able to read it (at least not that easy). It would be nice to have visual for exporting file in both version.
Also ability to import file from coded exported file. Is it possible to add this option into sienna?
Thanks

Hi Peter,
We appreciate the feedback and see what you are trying to do. Although this is functionality is not currently built in, it'll be worth while suggestion it
on this thread.
Thanks.

What is the best way to backup photos, etc. in case of theft, fire or flood?

I have 2 time capsules on 2 iMacs and want to occasionally backup on something, in addition to the time capsules, that I can keep in a small fireproof safe. Time capsule says a full backup requires 150 GB on one computer and 900 GB on the other. I don't care so much about applications, so I'm guessing that could be a lot lower.

It is wise to research this field carefully. My early CDs were useless after 5 years but I have yet to discover any difficulties with my Verbatim DVD +R.
The 2007 NIST/Library of Congress Optical Disc Longevity Study implies about a 50 year life for DVD R:
http://www.loc.gov/preservation/resources/rt/NIST_LC_OpticalDiscLongevity.pdf
Here are a few of my random thoughts:
1 - Safest, but not practical, media - punched lead (Pb) tape
2 - Do automated verification read after writing
3 - Keep all critical data on more than one type of media located in more than one place
4 - Infrequently used backup hard disks can be expected to have a much longer life than frequently used disks
5 - In general lower density hard disks are more reliable
6 - In general server grade disks are more reliable than desktop disks
7 - 5 inch desktop disks are more reliable than 3 inch laptop disks
8 - 10 year old disks less than 60 GB with proper MTBF specifications may outlast most more recent disks
9 - Compression or any type of security coding will reduce the likelihood of recovery

Full backup of Mac HD hangs up

If you take this post down, claiming that it’s only a request for an improvement, I might work up the nerve to read it on YouTube. How, exactly, am I supposed to fully back up and restore an -entire- Mac Mini hard drive, to and from an external FAT32 Passport USB drive, under OS X 10.4.11?
It doesn't work. Even after enabling and logging back in as the root user, a straight drag and drop copy hangs up on permissions. Even if I managed to fix all the permissions with Disk Utility, somewhere within the thousands of files, and/or apply read-write permissions to all files via Get Info, copy still hangs up on java aliases and *.sh files, claiming that the Passport drive cannot accept them. Why? It's just ones and zeros. Did the Passport drive clench its knees together and say no? Nor can I use Disk Utility to make an image file of the Mac hard drive. It hangs up claiming that a resource is busy. Clenching its knees together, no doubt. Nor can I use “Time Machine”. Apple was so kind and thoughtful as to remove from the market any Time Machine support it may have had for PowerPC in 10.5, if any, when it brought out Snow Leopard.
The ability of OS X to take a *.dmg file, open it and allow the application to simply be dropped into the HD is beautiful and elegant. Especially compared to the pain of having to verify that all the necessary mother and daughter module versions are present with Linux. But what possessed Apple to let OS X loose on the public without providing a dead easy and reliable way to back up and restore a hard drive? Was it the “Here’s my card; call me when you’re ready to compromise” syndrome?
I may have been mystified by the workings of that old IBM 600-series vacuum tube computer with the rotating magnetic drum memory, but I’m pretty sure that the operators could dump and load the operating system and applications using punch cards. What was Apple thinking when it declined to provide such a basic and necessary function? After losing 2/3 of my hard drive to incomplete and misleading Mac Help instructions on setting up a RAID system, I’d really like to back up the remaining portion, repartition the drive and start over. But nooo, that would be way too simple.
What Apple did well, it did very well. But what it neglected is every bit as insomnia-, ulcer-, and high BP-friendly as anything Microsoft ever did. What could have been so hard about providing basic backup and restore functions that it took until OS X 10.5 to figure out? I seem to remember that MS-DOS could do that. Not to mention earlier machines using punch cards and paper tape.
The least Apple could do, if it can’t tell us how to perform the maneuver successfully, is fix that oversight and provide an appropriate update to 10.4.

Thanks, Thomas. It should say something that I get my understanding of the whole MAC process from MAC Help. I did not think in terms of a bootable clone, but simple mass dump that could be restored by booting from the installation disk and then recopying the dump to the Mac HD. I haven't looked at this problem in a couple of years, and forgot to look for SuperDuper in my apps. Thanks for reminding me. The fact that I could follow incomplete MAC Help information on setting up a RAID system, and permanently make a partition of my Mac HD unmountable without erasing and reformatting the whole HD, put me off for a long time. I bought an old, early version of Retrospect once, and I don't recall that it worked very well.
PowerPC (Motorola 68000-series uP) code is written in bits, bytes, words and double words to be stored in memory. So long as you have a suitable conversion process, it doesn't matter to what medium or format you dump either the memory or HD. I don't think anyone would want to, but you could copy and recover everything on a HD to and from old-fashioned inefficient 7-track binary coded decimal magnetic tape with a suitable conversion process. The FAT32 and MAC Journaled formats encode the same information with different headers, byte order, checksums, etc. That's why I can download an application disk image file (*.dmg) to my PC, copy it to a flash drive, and copy that to my MAC, and expect it to unpack the app correctly.
If one cannot copy Mac HD information to FAT32, it's only because the Apple OS X creators did not bother to make the appropriate conversion process available to users. As I recall it, this way of thinking advanced as computers changed from professional tools to consumer toys. Basic and necessary tools got dropped in favor of new and improved flashy bells and whistles to chum for consumer dollars. Even scientific applications have suffered on occasion.
In the old mainframe days, no computer company could have gotten away with failing to provide for a way to back up the system. They simply crashed too often, even from things like power company transients and insects in the machine. I have long suspected that Apple made some kind of under the table deals with developers to let them make and sell the system tools that Apple should have provided. This has not been to our benefit.

How does TimeMachine determine which backup to link to?

We have 4 Macs, each having a Time Machine backup file on an external Time Capsule.
How does the Time Machine on each Mac know which file on that Time Capsule it links to?
Is it done via the file name, meta-data in the backup file, some other method?
Ideas?
Thanks
-Mike

Before "you" start an instance you set env variable ORACLE_SID. This identifies an instance. When you go into sqlplus and issue STARTUP, Oracle starts the instance named by the sid. Thus the instance running on the server is controlled by you. This changes as noted below.
If you were using a non-Oracle tool to start instances, such as Veritas, then you would see it start the instance you coded into the tool. It would not randomly pick an instance. It looks in the Veritas config file and sees that you always want instance 1 on this node and instance 2 on that node.
That said, you can make Oracle more random or "grid" like. 10g RAC done Oracle's way likes to bounce around between primary and secondary nodes. To see which instances are running on a node you can "ps -ef | grep pmon". Alternatively, use sqlplus to look in the database: view gv$instance gives you each instance name paired with the name of the host it is currently running on. There is one line of output per instance currently running.
-Mark

Coded backup

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