Lost my journal files

Question

Question

Daniel Buxton · Sep 22, 2019

#Journaling #Caché

I had my journal files all on one disk which died :(

The database files are all fine, but I having issues. Can I bypass the need for the journal files?

Discussion (5)2

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Robert Cemper · Sep 23, 2019

If you don't have a similar drive you may need to update %installdir%\cache.cpf

[Journal] AlternateDirectory=C:\InterSystems\Cache\mgr\journal\ BackupsBeforePurge=2 CurrentDirectory=C:\InterSystems\Cache\mgr\journal\ DaysBeforePurge=2

if this isn't enough

startup Caché in emergency mode as described :
https://cedocs.intersystems.com/latest/csp/docbook/DocBook.UI.Page.cls?KEY=GCAS_secmgmt#GCAS_secmgmt_emerg

and run DO ^STURECOV from namespace %SYS

it allows you to disable Journal Checking for the next startup.
then restart Caché

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score 0 · Answer 1 · 2019-09-23T22:44:47-04:00

Hey Robert,

Thanks heaps, yes I found in cconsole.log file telling me to start cache as cache -sd:\bin\cache\cachesys\mgr -B

I was then in the SYS namespace and ran Do ^STURECOV
I disabled the Journal from the interactive menu, was able to start cache. I then did this process again and re-enabled journing. I am pretty sure the interactive menu went

DO ENABLE^%NOJRN

I noticed that jounaling files are back on my new drive and it did say journaling files lasts the last 2 backups or 2 days. So I take it since I am not shadowing, journaling is not essential?

score 0 · Answer 2 · 2019-09-23T22:46:52-04:00

Hey Kenneth,

I am not shadowing or mirroring. I managed to get past this error and get everything back up. Journal Files now exist in a new drive.

Can I now do full backups and restores or is that now broken due to incomplete journal files?

score 0 · Answer 3 · 2019-09-23T06:31:52-04:00

I would recommend getting your journal drive fixed, taking a full backup of your databases and then start journaling from there.

Whether or not you need the journals depends on how you might be using them

Obviously they are used to recover your databases since the last backup .

They are also used for shadowing and mirroring

score 0 · Answer 4 · 2019-09-24T09:01:02-04:00

Hello Daniel,

As Kenneth mentioned, outside of shadowing/mirroring journaling could still be very important depending on your usage.

https://cedocs.intersystems.com/latest/csp/docbook/DocBook.UI.Page.cls?KEY=GCDI_journal

For example, journals are needed in a disaster recovery scenario in order to bring your instance more up to date than the time of the backup itself. If you are not journaling and restore a backup your data will be current as of the time the backup was taken. Replaying journals would be necessary to proceed beyond that. You would only need the journals created after the time of the backup.

Also note that I would recommend testing your backup restore procedure and regularly taking integrity checks to confirm the validity of your backups. I would go so far as to say a backup that has not passed an integrity check is not a valid backup.

https://cedocs.intersystems.com/latest/csp/docbook/DocBook.UI.Page.cls?KEY=GCDI_backup