Backup by Copying

You can copy a database to back up the tables, views, and procedures that you own in a database.

Because any user authorized to use a database can use the copy database operation, this is a useful backup method for a non-DBA, who can use it to back up tables, views, and procedures.

By default, all of the tables, views, and procedures that you own in the database are copied. If you specify table names, only those tables are copied.

For a complete explanation of the copy database operation, see the chapter "Loading and Unloading Databases."

Backup by Unloading

Unloading a database is a time-consuming method for backing up and recovering your database, because all of your database's files must be unloaded and reloaded. For this reason, it is recommended that you use checkpointing instead.

However, unloading a database can be useful as a backup tool because it enables you to:

• Generate copy scripts, which can be used to recreate your database.
• Recover particular tables by editing the copy.in scripts. For a description of the copy.in scripts, see the chapter "Loading and Unloading Databases."

For the detailed steps for generating these scripts using VDBA, see the Procedures section of online help. See the Creating Unload and Reload Scripts topic.

To accomplish this task using a system command, use the unloaddb command. For more information, see the Command Reference Guide.