How to archive a Notes database to another Notes database.
How archiving works
The Sentinel builds a collection of Notes in the source database. It then takes each source Note, one by one, and searches the destination database for a matching key. If it finds a match, it will update the destination if it is older. If Sentinel does not find a match, it will add the document to the destination archive. It then deletes the Note from the source database. This leaves a deletion stub so that this document will be deleted in all replica copies of this source database.
Points to Remember
1. Both the source and archive (destination) databases must already exist before running the Sentinel.
2. Archiving removes the documents from the source. This is the equivalent of deleting the documents, so be extremely careful. Always test on a sample data set before running an archival opertaion.
3. You should use a view in the source database to archive documents. We recommend opening the view and inspecting it to ensure you are archiving the correct documents. If these are NOT the documents that you wish to archive, do not proceed.
4. Archiving will respect all encryption security and rich text fields, making an exact copy. The archive will be as secure as the source.
5. The archive operation is not reversible.
This means that once run, you cannot easily put the archived (deleted) documents back into the source database. Note: You can always reverse the archive by running the Sentinel (using Notes to Notes) from the archive to the original source, but that would create new document IDs, and a lot of unnecessary replication.
6. It is necessary to have a key, so the Sentinel can find the documents in the destination database. If Sentinel cannot find a correct match on the key, it will add a new document. If this is not what you intended, you must double check your key values.
7. Key views must be sorted by the Key first. Otherwise, the Sentinel will not find the match, and will erroneously add the document a second time.
Tips and Techniques
1. Prior to running an Archival Task, we recommend making a copy of the Notes Destination Database and testing the Archival Task. Run an Archival Task and check your results prior to executing the Archival Task on the Production Database.