Portal, Express Beta Version 6.1 Operating systems: i5/OS, Linux,Windows

Guidelines for Idle Standby deployments

If IBM^® WebSphere^® Portal Express is deployed in an Idle Standby topology, both a primary node and a secondary node are running in a cluster. The primary node is the active node, and the secondary node is the backup node. In this topology, there is no difference in database backup and restore because all cluster members use the same WebSphere Portal Express databases. However, you need to consider some additional factors when backing up and recovering the file system in an Idle Standby deployment.

1. Follow the file system backup and recovery procedures for WebSphere Portal Express on both the primary and secondary nodes.
2. Back up the file system of the Deployment Manager configuration, the master configuration repository for the cell, using one of the following methods:

   • Use the simple commands provided by IBM WebSphere Application Server: backupConfig and restoreConfig.
   • Use IBM Tivoli^® Storage Manager or other utility to back up the Deployment Manager profile directory, where this configuration information resides.
3. When restoring WebSphere Portal Express databases and file systems, make sure to restore the Deployment Manager configuration at the same time that the primary node and secondary node file systems are restored. Then perform a node synchronization of both nodes using the Deployment Manager Administration Console. This step ensures that the configuration is identical on both nodes and is consistent with the restored databases.