Server upgrade - curtain call

Server Upgrade - Backups

As anyone knows who deals with computers doing backups of the database is critical. Well, SirsiDynix has a backup procedure for the iPAC configurations. This procedure compresses and rebuilds the records that make NHU-PAC appear as it does to your browser. This process takes all of two minutes to complete on the largest database, NHU-PAC. During the backups the server must be in single user mode. What this says is simple. No one else, excepting the administrator can access the iPACs during the backup process. The times when this script is run are as follows:

NHU-PAC FAQ -- 7:30 AM Mondays
Gilford 6:42 AM Mondays
Moose 7:01 AM Mondays
NHU-PAC 6:30 AM Mondays

So, the databases will be unavailable for a grand total of 2 minutes from the times listed above. The benefit of these backups is a backed-up, compressed, cleaned, and rebuilt configuration database. In the event of a configuration problem there will be a backup available for quick recovery. An added benefit, I’m hoping, is that My List will stop giving us problems. Keep your fingers crossed.

The server upgrade has been a long time in coming but it’s finally over – almost. There’s still the issue, which will require another billing from Sirsi/Dynix, of moving the Holdings Maintenance to one of the decommissioned servers. The move to a server class computer should eliminate the sporadic outages experienced by Holdings Maintenance users. The sporadic loss of connectivity to Holdings Maintenance was found to be a server inability to deal with the traffic load. This was determined by the State’s OIT (Office of Information Technology) people. Once again, Keep your fingers crossed.



On a more congenial note: a piece of sculpture was installed on the front lawn of the State Library this morning. Unfortunately the pictures of the sculptor and his work have been hijacked by Adobe and its damnable pdf format, so Shelley Auger provided me with a backup route. Gary Haven Smith is the creator of the granite sculpture with gold leaf in the inner part of the curves.