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We have 2 lotus domino servers (8.5.3 FP6 on W2008). Transnational log is enabled. Domino clustering is enabled.

Primary > MAIL1 Secondary > MAIL2 (Replica partner)

All users by default connects to primary MAIL1 via lotus notes. Today we encountered disk failure in our primary MAIL1 server . Unfortunately multiple disk failure occurred and the server goes faulty. all users lotus notes shifted to Secondary MAIL2 server auto.

To arrange alternate hardware it may take few days, my question is what should be the roadmap to restore the primary server again? I have only following files (today dated) from primary mail1 server All Users MAIL NSF files (14-Nov-2018 dated files) names.nsf admin4.nsf server.id admin.id cert.id iwaredir.nsf

If i install same Domino level on new hardware using old primary mail1 server name / ip , and restore above files to original location , will it work ?

After I re install domino on new server and restore 14-nov-2018 users mail nsf files to the new server after few days , will it replicate from mail2 server auto?

iBBi
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1 Answers1

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As long as the downtime is no longer than the deletion stub purge time (usually 90 days), there will be no problem at all: Just reinstall the server on any new hardware and copy the mailfiles from that date to the new server.

Set it to restricted via notes.ini Server_Restricted=4, so that users don't start to work with the old data before a full replication has occurred.

Then let your scheduled replication (I hope you have one) do its job and replicate all missing data from MAIL2 to MAIL1. If you don't wanna wait, just type repl MAIL2 on the MAIL1 console.

Depending on performance of server and network replication will not need long and after that you can allow access to the server again via set config Server_Restricted=.

Tode
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  • This is just great. Appreciate your valuable reply. then :) Ok one more query, We have a 2 backup types, 1) Symantec backup exec that takes lotus db backup using its agent, 2) scheduled job on mail server that copy the users mail nsf files to remote file server, This is done using the ROBOCOPY in off peak time, If i copy back files from backup 2 , (file server) to MAIL1 SERVER mail folder , hope it will be ok? – iBBi Nov 17 '18 at 07:37
  • also is it possible that I dont copy old files to mail1, instead I create new replica mail files from mail2 to mail1 ? – iBBi Nov 17 '18 at 11:22
  • I would prefer the backups made with agent over file copy because of consistency. You could also create replicas, but that will last way longer than file system copies, because of limitations in the bandwidth of the replicator – Tode Nov 17 '18 at 13:39
  • Ok today I install domino server same level, copy old data folder + notes.ini , and started server with restricted_server=4 , after few hours I noticed that - On mail1 i see 344 users(which is in-correct), & - On mail2 its 389 (which is correct) Missing users are valid users, i can see there mail files on both servers, but why there entries have gone from mail1 server? How can I force names.nsf file from mail2 to mail1 server? – iBBi Nov 18 '18 at 06:13
  • after i provided PULL MAIL2 NAMES.NSF ON MAIL1 SERVER, now when i goto PEOPLE it says , UNABLE TO VIEW PEOPLE, INVALID OR NON EXISTING DOCUMENT – iBBi Nov 18 '18 at 07:19
  • First of all: its SERVER_RESTRICTED not RESTRICTED_SERVER. Then: databases don‘t get deleted automatically in a Cluster: you need to do that yourself or use the right options when deleting a user. And regarding names.nsf: did you say „first server“ when setting up the newly installed server? Then you created a new names.nsf, admin4.nsf, and all the other system databases. They have new replica ids. That was wrong: you need to replace those with correct replicas when server is down – Tode Nov 18 '18 at 08:33
  • I am pleased to inform that with few hurdles, I was able to restore the primary MAIL1 server & at the moment all functions seems to be normal. Following are few issues I encountered, – iBBi Nov 19 '18 at 03:58
  • 1) When I started the server 1st time, It gave following error, "Configuration Error: Server record not found. The Server Name in ID file [server/org], does not match any Server found in the Domino Directory in the ($Locations) view. Check that the Server name field in the Server record is a hierarchical name". To sort this i issued following Load convert -d names.nsf * pubnames.ntf afterwards server started fine, but some users entries were missing in directory of MAIL1. I deleted names.nsf and create new replica from mail2 to mail1 & this part went ok, – iBBi Nov 19 '18 at 03:58
  • 2) admin4.nsf was there but on console I was seeing missing admin4 entry, therefore I re-copied thsi file from the backup, 3) mail2 was not replicating the new emails TO mail1 server, after doing restart of all servers, the problem went away and syncing started to work fine, including lotus traveler as well. 4) Today users are complaining that the email that they have read on mail2 server, are now showing UNREAD in mail1 server, I dont have solution for it so I am advising them to to manually mark them as read. Still watching console for any error if any ... – iBBi Nov 19 '18 at 03:58
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    That's the point where you should go and get someone professional to help you. This is the reason I said: I'd prefer "real" backup, as probably your restored files from "Copy- Only- Backup" are simply corrupt and incomplete... – Tode Nov 20 '18 at 05:45
  • With tight budgeting for IT dept, single person to look after for whole data center, servers, cisco, ibm, SAN's, Tapes, Backups, VM, SAP, wifi, reporting, etc etc, , often results in such disaster, Either its hardware or professional resources ! Thank you for your help , it helped me a lot. – iBBi Nov 20 '18 at 10:24