The GroupWise® Target Service Agent (GWTSA) is a GroupWise-specific API that works with compatible backup software to provide reliable backups of a running GroupWise system. The GWTSA can be used in a clustered GroupWise system with appropriate preparation and understanding of how the GWTSA works. For background information on the GWTSA and a list of compatible backup software, see "GroupWise Target Service Agent " in "Databases" in the GroupWise 6.5 Administration Guide.
In a clustering environment, the GWTSA must be installed and loaded on each node from which your backup software backs up any portion of your GroupWise system. To accommodate the variable locations of data to back up from a clustered GroupWise system, the gwtsa.ncf file of each node should be edited to include a /home startup switch for every domain and post office on every cluster-enabled volume that might ever be mounted on that node. Set the /home startup switch to the physical volume name (without the server name), rather than the cluster-enabled volume name, when specifying the location of each domain and post office. For example:
Incorrect:
/home-gwcluster_gwvol1:\gwdom
Before your backup software starts backing up your GroupWise system, it calls on the GWTSA to verify the accessibility of each physical volume specified by the /home startup switch. Your backup software then backs up those domains and post offices that are currently accessible to the GWTSA and skips those that are not accessible. The backup runs successfully, even if some locations are not currently mounted on the node where the GWTSA is running. Locations skipped when backups are run from one node will be caught when backups are run from another node where the GWTSA is also running.
If the node where the GWTSA is running goes down, the backup will need to be rerun when the node is up again, unless the nodes where the domain and post office volumes failed over are also configured to back them up. There is currently no way to restart a backup from a checkpoint position. By configuring redundant backup jobs on all nodes where domains and post offices could fail over, you can ensure that domains and post offices are always backed up, regardless of the node they are mounted on when the backup takes place.
WARNING: You should not install the GWTSA on the cluster-enabled volumes where domains and post offices are located. The GWTSA cannot currently run in protected memory, nor can it run re-entrantly. If multiple GroupWise volumes failed over to the same node, and if that node attempted to start an instance of the GWTSA for each GroupWise volume, only the first instance would run successfully. Subsequent instances of the GWTSA would fail and the domains and post offices specified for backup by those instances would not be available to your backup software.
To restore data in a clustering environment, you must run your backup/restore software on the node where the location to restore is currently mounted.