StarTeam backups

StarTeam allows you to perform backups in a completely online manner, without shutting down or locking a server configuration.

What to backup

When performing a backup, you need to include all of the following:

Application Configuration File The starteamserver-configs.xml file needs to be backed up. It is located in the folder in which you installed StarTeam Server.
Database Files Backup the database. Each server configuration has one database (or, in the case of Oracle, one schema user).
Server Configuration Directory In the starteamserver-configs.xml, locate the value of the RepositoryPath option. Include everything in that directory. For example: 
<option name="RepositoryPath" value="c:\my\server-config\directory-name"/>

In the example, back up everything in c:\my\server-config\directory-name.

All of these should be backed up at the same time, preferably on the same media.

Note: The server configuration directory should not be backed up until after the database backup completes. These two backups should not be done simultaneously. This guarantees that everything referenced in the database appears in the server configuration in the right data location.

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Restoring data

There may be a few scenarios when you need to restore data. In the event that:

The database is lost The administrator must restore the last full backup of the database and apply the redo logs (Oracle) or apply incremental backups (Microsoft SQL Server) to roll forward the database to the vault time.
The vault is lost It is very important to take a backup of the database in its current state, including the transaction logs (redo logs), before performing any restoring.
The vault (or both the vault and database) are lost The server administrator must restore both the database and the vault from the last backup. After restoring the online database backup, the database has to be rolled forward to the vault backup time.

Note: If you do not have transaction logs (redo logs) available, this can cause data loss and limit your disaster recovery capabilities.

  1. Reload the database from the last backup.
  2. Simultaneously, reload the repository information (server configuration directory) from the last backup. If the full and incremental backups were used, then you can reload the last full backup, and in parallel, reload all subsequent incremental backups.
  3. Restore the starteam-server-configs.xml file.
  4. Start the server configuration.

  5. Test the server configuration.

    You can test the sever configuration by performing all of your regular operations, such as checking-out various current and historical configurations of your main projects, running your build process, and so on.

When all loads are complete, the repository is ready to use. It is okay if the archive or attachment folders have “future” files not represented in the database. StarTeam ignores the “future” files and, if those file revisions are eventually added again, StarTeam overwrites the existing files.

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