Chapter 18. IBM DB2 Backup and Recovery

IBM DB2® Universal Database™ (DB2 UDB) is not a new player in the relational database management system (RDBMS) market. DB2's history and legacy begins with the concept of the RDBMS proposed by E. F. Cobb of IBM Research in 1970. Since then, IBM has developed a complete family of RDBMS software now called DB2 UDB. DB2 was first released in 1983. The database manager in OS/2®Extended Edition in 1987 was the first relational database on distributed systems. DB2 UDB is now available on Linux, Unix (AIX, Solaris, and HP-UX), and Windows platforms. The backup and restore utilities for DB2 UDB on these operating systems are virtually identical and platform-independent.

This chapter was contributed by Jeff Richardson, Kondal Yennaram, and Kulvir S. Bhogal. Jeff has worked for IBM for 24 years, is a certified DB admin for DB2 UDB LUW, a martial arts instructor, a gardener, and a woodworker wannabe when he has free time. Kondal works for IBM as a Senior Software Specialist for DB2 UDBs on LUW. Kulvir Singh Bhogal works as a WebSphere consultant, implementing IBM's e-business strategies across the United States. Kulvir has nearly 100 technology patents pending with the U.S. Patent Office as well as 14 granted patents.

Backup and recovery have been integral parts of IBM DB2 UDB since its beginnings. DB2 UDB provides backup and restore commands, utilities, wizards, and APIs. Backup and recovery can be performed offline (cold) and online (hot), providing true 24/7 availability of data. Backups can be scheduled to run automatically; if DB2 UDB detects that no backup is necessary, the backup does not execute.

This chapter describes, at a high level, the architecture of DB2 UDB and the components a DBA needs to perform backup and recovery, along with backup and restore examples. Detailed information concerning DB2 UDB architecture and the DB2 engine and its utilities can be found in the DB2 administration guides, Command Reference, the Data Recovery and High Availability Guide and Reference, and other manuals. These documents are available for download at http://www.ibm.com/ and can be browsed online at http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/db2help/index.jsp.