Veritas NetBackup™ for DB2 Administrator's Guide
- Introduction to NetBackup for DB2
- Installing NetBackup for DB2
- Configuring NetBackup for DB2
- About configuring a backup policy for DB2
- About adding backup selections to a DB2 policy
- About backing up archive log files with the user exit program
- Configuring the run-time environment
- Creating a db2.conf file for use with the user exit program
- Creating a db2.conf file (vendor method)
- Configuring bp.conf files in a cluster environment
- About NetBackup for DB2 templates and shell scripts
- Performing backups and restores of DB2
- About user-directed backups
- Performing a database restore
- About an alternate restore
- Using Snapshot Client with NetBackup for DB2
- About NetBackup for DB2 with Snapshot Client operations
- Restoring NetBackup for DB2 from a snapshot backup
- About configuring NetBackup for DB2 block-level incremental backups on UNIX
- Configuring policies for BLI backups with NetBackup for DB2
- About Snapshot Client effects
- Troubleshooting NetBackup for DB2
- About the NetBackup for DB2 log files
- Appendix A. Configuration for a DB2 EEE (DPF) environment
- Appendix B. Using NetBackup for DB2 with SAP®
- Appendix C. Register authorized locations
About configuring NetBackup for DB2 block-level incremental backups on UNIX
If only a small portion of a database changes on a daily basis, full database backups are costly in terms of time and media. The Block-Level Incremental (BLI) Backup interface extends the capabilities of NetBackup to back up only the file system blocks that contain changed data blocks.
A database BLI backup is done at the file system block level, which means only changed file blocks are backed up. Unchanged blocks within the files are not backed up. The VxFS Storage Checkpoint facility tracks changed blocks in real time. Accordingly, a BLI backup does not need to search the entire volume for the modified blocks at backup time. BLI backup saves time, decreases the amount of backup media that is required, and significantly reduces CPU and network overhead during backups. In addition, BLI backup allows more frequent backups, so backup images are more up to date.
BLI backup is particularly useful for any large databases that are sized in terms of hundreds of gigabytes or terabytes. Most traditional methods for database backup require that any change in the database - no matter how small - requires that the entire database is backed up. With BLI backup, only modified blocks (or file) need to be backed up.
The recommended method for performing BLI backups is the proxy BLI agent with NetBackup for DB2. This method supports the other features of NetBackup for DB2, including the policy types and schedules and the convenience of the template generation wizard. It also remains tightly integrated with DB2 and its catalog, which greatly simplifies administration tasks.