The following practice is not widespread, but it is definitely worth mentioning. This idea came about when a customer's primary domain WPDOMAIN.DB file went bad. The idea of going to backup just wasn't all that pleasing because of all the changes made in the system since the customer performed the last backup. The customer needed to re-create the primary domain from a secondary domain. The system maintenance feature, Replace Primary with Secondary, is a lifesaver, but it raises an important question: How do you guarantee the integrity of a secondary domain database, ensuring that you'll have a fail-safe backup if your primary domain goes bad? Here is a way to do just that:
Tip To connect to the BACKUP-PRIMARY-DOMAIN domain, you need to choose Tools, GroupWise System Operations, Select Domain, and then manually attach to the WPDOMAIN.DB for this domain. Right-clicking and choosing Connect won't work because the UNC path to the BACKUP-PRIMARY-DOMAIN is incorrect. The system now has, in effect, a fully replicated version of the primary domain database, which is only about one minute out of sync with the primary domain. Should the primary domain database become irretrievably corrupted (in the case of a major disk failure, for instance), you have a secondary domain database that is the best possible candidate for use in a Replace Primary with Secondary operation. Just connect manually to WPDOMAIN.DB for the BACKUP-PRIMARY-DOMAIN and then perform the Replace Primary with Secondary system maintenance routine that was outlined previously in this chapter. |