Transitive Vectors And The Restore Verification Process; Preserving Rights When Restoring File System Data On Netware - Novell EDIRECTORY 8.8 SP5 - ADMINISTRATION Administration Manual

them back into the tree, you would remove them from the replica ring, change all their replica
information to external references using DSRepair, and then re-add the replicas to the servers using
replication from the copy on the DSMASTER server. These steps are documented in Section 17.7,
"Recovering the Database If Restore Verification Fails," on page 459.
If a disaster occurs in which you lose many servers but not all, the issues with replicas will probably
be complex, and you should contact Novell Support.

17.2.7 Transitive Vectors and the Restore Verification Process

A transitive vector is a time stamp for a replica. It is made up of a representation of the number of
seconds since a common specific point in history (January 1, 1970), the replica number, and the
current event number. Here's an example:
s3D35F377 r02 e002
In the context of backup and restore, it's important because the transitive vector is used to verify that
the server restored is in sync with the replica ring it participates in.
Servers that hold replicas of the same partition communicate with each other to keep the replicas
synchronized. Each time a server communicates with another server in the replica ring, it keeps a
record of the transitive vector the other server had when they communicated. These transitive
vectors allow the servers in a replica ring to know what information needs to be sent to each replica
in the ring to keep all the replicas synchronized. When a server goes down, it stops communicating,
and the other servers don't send updates or change the transitive vector they have recorded for that
server until the server starts communicating again.
When you restore eDirectory on a server, the restore verification process compares the transitive
vector of the server being restored to the other servers in the replica ring. This is done to make sure
that the replicas being restored are in the same state that the other servers expect.
If the transitive vector on the remote server is ahead of the local vector, then data is missing from the
restore, and the verification fails. (For example, data might be missing because you did not turn on
continuous roll-forward logging before the last full or incremental backup, you did not include the
roll-forward logs in the restore, or the set of roll-forward logs you provided for the restore was not
complete.)
By default the restored eDirectory database is not opened if it is inconsistent with the other replicas.
For an example of the log file entry when transitive vectors don't match, see "Overview of How the
Backup Tool Does a Restore" on page 427.
For information on what to do if the restore verification fails, see Section 17.7, "Recovering the
Database If Restore Verification Fails," on page 459.
17.2.8 Preserving Rights When Restoring File System Data on
NetWare
On NetWare only, restoring file system rights (also called trustee assignments) is dependent on the
object that is the trustee being present in eDirectory. Because of this relationship, you need to use
caution when restoring eDirectory and file system data on NetWare, to preserve file system rights.
434 Novell eDirectory 8.8 Administration Guide