Backup and bdb-logfile removal

[Peter Mogensen <apm@mutex.dk>]

Hi,

I've been going all documentation I can find (FAQ/bdb-docs..) and I 
still have some doubt whether I understand this correctly.

I run frequent dumps with slapcat to backup the database, but I still 
need to cleanup the BDB logfiles and it would also be nice get faster 
back online after a crash than you can from LDIF.

So I understand how to create a hot backup by copying the database files 
(db_archive -s) and then the log files (db_archive -l) and runing 
db_recover -c.

I can see that I can delete unused log files (db_archive [no options]) 
from the backup. But when is it safe to remove log files from the active 
environment?
db_archive on the active environment lists fewer files than on the 
backup (predictable enough).

The docs say that running db_archive -d can make recovery impossible.  
OK... so I don't do that.
But what is required of my hot backup snapshot to know that I can delete 
log files from the active environment? (and which?) and still not 
influence the posibility for recovery.

Could anyone list a step-by-step procedure to create a snapshot for 
backup and prune the log files from the active environment?

btw: openldap 2.3.30/ bdb 4.2.52 (debian) ... but I guess that's not so 
important here.

regards,
Peter

PS: I expect still to do  occasional  slapcats just as an extra security 
measure.