Section 17.6. Physical Backups with a Storage Manager

17.6. Physical Backups with a Storage Manager

Many commercial backup utilities have a completely integrated backup solution for Sybase databases. They have an interface that communicates directly with Sybase's backup server. This interface provides additional functionality by enabling you to create, schedule, and execute the backups via a graphical user interface (GUI). It lets you run the backups and restores with just a few mouse clicks.

Sometimes, these utilities are on the same system as the dataserver; at other times, only a client part of the application will be on the dataserver system, and a separate backup application will be on a networked system. No matter how it is set up, these applications provide an easier and reliable backup solution.

In addition to providing support for physical backups, the commercial utilities described in Chapter 8 can also provide support for logical backups. They add additional functionality to bcp, such as easy scheduling and a GUI frontend, and allow the logical backups to be stored on remote backup devices.

Because of the strong integration with Sybase's backup system, sometimes the only change seen on the Sybase side might be to the destination or source device used. This allows easy merging of the new product with existing backup procedures. For example, where the physical tape device had been /dev/nrmt0 in a script, the new device might have the form:

"3rdPartybackup::'99.3.10.04.00.master.full' "

The 3rdPartybackup phrase tells the Sybase backup server that the backup should go to the third-party utility. The 99.3.10.04.00.master.full phrase represents the time, database, and what type of backup is being done. In this way, information about the backup can be sent to the backup utility so it knows how to record and store the backup. This value would be used both in the backup and recovery commands in Sybase.