Support for dump history file

Overview

Prior to ASE version 15.7 ESD#2, ASE did not provide any structured information about backup/restore operations performed on databases. Delphix relied on the backup server log file to find information about any backups performed using a particular backup server. The Delphix Engine parsed this log file, read each backup file to find which database the backup belonged to and restored the ones required for linked databases. As backup information is not very structured in this log file, getting backup history from this file resulted in the collection and parsing of unnecessary data. Starting with ASE 15.7 ESD#2, users can enable an option at the ASE instance level to record all backup and restore operations in a particular file, known as the Dump History file. Backup and restore operation information is stored in this file in a structured way and can be reliably used to get information about backups performed on a given database. When Dump History is enabled for a linked source, Delphix will use this feature to get information about backups for all sync operations including validated sync.

Prerequisites

To use this feature, Dump history needs to be enabled at the ASE Source instance level.

Linking a database with dump history enabled

By default, Delphix uses the backup server log file to discover backup information. Users can switch to Dump History by explicitly enabling it for the dSource. Before linking a database with Dump History enabled, make sure that Dump History is enabled on the source ASE instance. To enable Dump History for the database being linked, go through the linking wizard and on the Data Management page, check the box marked "Use Dump History".