NetVault DB2 plugin offers Online backups, where user databases remain online and fully accessible during backup operations, minimizing downtime for users. There are 3 types of Online backups. Full, incremental and delta.
A full backup is required for all incremental or delta sets as a baseline. Full Backups will back up:
- full copy of all database pages
- standard metadata set (db configuration, table space definitions, db history)
Incremental Backups, or 'cumulative' backups, back up data that is new or changed since the last Full backup was performed. Incremental backups will back up:
-updated database pages since last successful full backup
-standard metadata set (db configuration, table space definitions, db history)
-full copy of changed LOB and LF data types from previous full, incremental or delta backup
The following steps detail the procedure necessary to perform an incremental backup set.
1. Run a full backup. This will fully backup all selected data.
2. Run incremental backups as required. Each new incremental will create a backup of all data that has changed since the most recent full backup.
Note: This procedure requires a larger amount of time to create each backup, but it offers the fastest recovery, as only the most recent incremental and the original full backups need to be restored to bring a system back to its most recent state.
Delta Backups back up data that is new or changed since the last backup performed, regardless of type (e.g., whether the last backup was a Full, Incremental or Delta). Delta backups will back up:
- updated db pages since last successful full, incremental or incremental delta backup
- standard metadata set (db configuration, table space definitions, db history)
- full copy of changed LOB and LF data types from previous full, incremental or incremental delta backup
The following steps detail the procedure necessary to perform a delta backup set.
1. Run a full backup. This will fully backup all selected data.
2. Run the initial delta backup. This will create a backup of the data that has changed since the most recent full backup.
3. Run additional delta backups (as required). This will backup all selected data that is new or changed since the most recent delta backup.
Note: This procedure offers the fastest backup time available, although recovery time may be affected. To bring a system back to its most recent state, the original full backup must be restored in addition to each individual Delta backup, in the order they were performed.
