Veritas NetBackup™ for Informix Administrator's Guide

Media and device management

All devices supported by Media Manager are available to NetBackup for Informix.

Scheduling facilities

NetBackup scheduling facilities on the master server can be used to schedule automatic and unattended Informix backups.

This feature also lets you choose the times when these operations can occur. For example, to prevent interference with normal daytime operations, you can schedule your database backups to occur only at night.

Multiplexed backups and restores

NetBackup for Informix lets you take advantage of NetBackup's multiplexing capabilities. Multiplexing directs multiple data streams to one backup device, thereby reducing the time necessary to complete the operation.

Transparent Informix and regular file system backup and restore operations

All backups and restores run simultaneously and transparently without any action from the NetBackup administrator.

The database administrator can run database backup and restore operations through NetBackup. An administrator or any other authorized user can use NetBackup to run database backups and restores.

Alternatively, you can use the Informix ON-Bar utility as if NetBackup were not present.

Sharing the same storage units used for other file backups

It is possible to share the same devices and media used for other backups or to give Informix exclusive use of certain devices and media. NetBackup for Informix can use Media Manager, disk, and PureDisk storage units.

Centralized and networked backup operations

From the NetBackup master server, you can schedule database backups or start them manually for any client. The Informix databases can also reside on hosts that are different from the devices on which NetBackup stores the backups.

Graphical user interfaces

A database administrator or NetBackup administrator can start backup or restore operations for Informix from the NetBackup graphical user interface on the master server.

Parallel backup and restore operations

NetBackup for Informix supports the parallel backup and restore capabilities of Informix ON-Bar. For example, this permits the user to run more than one tape device at a time for a single Informix backup or restore, thereby reducing the time necessary to complete the operation.

Compression

Compression increases backup performance over the network and reduces the size of the backup image that NetBackup writes to the storage unit.