Block Level Database Backups Using Database Editions

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Database Agents

Many vendors offer a variety of methods for backing up the databases, most with 'agents' that talk directly to the database in order to back it up 'hot'-that is, without shutting down the database. VERITAS NetBackup, for instance, supports the hot backup of Oracle, Informix, MS Exchange, MS SQL Server, and Sybase. They are very efficient and highly reliable once they are configured and put into production.

One 'nonbackup' software company called FalconStor offers the administrator the ability to back up databases using its TimeMark technology to back up data independent of the database agents offered by most of the backup vendors today. TimeMark enables FalconStor's IPStor (a storage virtualization tool) to create periodic, scheduled, point-in-time copies of data volumes. A tool such as this provides near instantaneous recovery of single files or an entire volume back to a known-good-point in time. Coupled with their Zero-Impact Backup Enabler, which allows third-party backup software from BakBone and VERITAS to perform full, incremental, and differential backup/restore at the block level, it allows online, incremental backups of databases to be performed with transactional integrity when used with IPStor's database-aware Snapshot Agents.

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