Backing Up a Database
This is a good time to back up your database, because you’ve finished entering some tables. In the next part of the tutorial, you run a script to create more tables. Throughout this tutorial, you will be instructed to back up your database frequently. That way, if you run into difficulties, you can restore the last correct version and try again. In a production database, a full backup and restore performs several functions:
- It preserves your data by making a copy of both the data and the data structures (metadata).
- It improves database performance by balancing indexes and performing garbage collection on outdated records.
- It reclaims space occupied by deleted records, and packs the remaining data.
- When you restore, it gives you the option of changing the database page size and of distributing the database among multiple files or disks.
- Important: If you restore a database to a name that is already in use, be sure that no users are connected to it at the time you restore.
