• Product: Aleph
• Product Version: 20, 21, 22, 23
• Relevant for Installation Type: Dedicated-Direct, Direct, Local, Total Care

Description:
Does Aleph need to be shut down before using oracle_expdp_aleph_libs (the Oracle Data Pump export) -- either as part of the Upgrade Express "Export customer data" step or as a standalone procedure?

Resolution:
The export procedure does not *require* that Aleph be down. Though doing the export may slow down activities on the server, it will in *no* case cause those activities to produce incorrect results.. 

Record creation/update by pc_server's and oclc_server's can result in inconsistencies in the *exported* data. For example, a bib and ADM record might be created between the time the bib z00 is exported and the time that the ADM z00 is exported, resulting (on the server to which the data is loaded) in an ADM record whose bib does not exist.

If you are doing a test export and want to have the OPAC up during the export, the updates which would be omitted would only be those to the z37 hold requests and the z69 OPAC log, which really wouldn't matter so much.

The simplest and surest way to prevent such situations is to have Aleph down. In doing a test export, the inconsistencies should be few enough that they would not really be a problem, but in the actual, production export aleph *must* be down. (You can, of course, point the OPAC to a recently-updated Test server during this time.)

• Article last edited: 12-Mar-2016