Performing a full backup using IBConsole

Go Up to Performing backups and restores using IBConsole

To initiate a full, logical backup using IBConsole, take the following steps:

1. Right-click on a database in the tree pane, and select Backup/Restore from the context menu.

2. When the context menu expands to display backup and restore options, select Backup. The Database Backup dialog appears, as shown in the figure:

3. Check the database server to make sure the indicated server is correct. If it is not, cancel this dialog and re-initiate the Database Backup dialog under the correct server.

4. If you accessed the Database Backup dialog from a database alias, the Alias field is automatically assigned. If you accessed the Database Backup dialog from the Databases menu, then you must select an alias from the list of database aliases.

The database alias references the associated database file name, so you need to specify only the alias name, not the actual database filename, when indicating the database to back up. If the database spans multiple files, the server uses the header page of each file to locate additional files, so the entire database can be backed up based on the alias filename.

5. Select a destination server from a list of registered servers in the Backup Files Server drop‑down list.

6. Once a destination server has been selected, a list of backup file aliases is available from the Backup Files Alias drop‑down list. If you want to overwrite an existing backup file, select the appropriate file from the drop‑down list. If you want to create a new backup file, you can type a new alias name in the Backup File(s) Alias field.

7. Indicate where the backup is to be stored by entering one or more filenames, specifying a size for each file, in the Backup File(s) table. To insert a new row into the Backup File(s) table, move to the last row and column in the table and type W‑Z.

When entering a filename, make sure to include the file path unless you wish to write the file to the current working directory.

If you select an existing backup alias, the table displays all the filenames and file sizes of that alias. You can edit any information within this table. To add another file to the backup file list, enter a new filename at the end of the table. To remove a file from the backup file list, delete the values in the table.

8. You can specify backup options by entering a valid value, by clicking the option value and choosing a new value from a drop‑down list of values, or by double-clicking the option value to rotate its value to the next in the list of values. See About IBConsole backup options below for descriptions of these options.

9. Click OK to start the backup.

Note: Database files and backup files can have any name that is legal on the operating system; the gdb and gbk file extensions are InterBase conventions only. Because files that have the gdb extension automatically get backed up whenever they are touched in some versions of Windows XP, InterBase now recommends using an ib extension for database files and ibk for backup files.

A backup file typically occupies less space than the source database because it includes only the current version of data and incurs less overhead for data storage. A backup file also contains only the index definition, not the index data structures.

If you specify a backup file that already exists, IBConsole overwrites it. To avoid overwriting, specify a unique name for the backup file.

Topics

• About IBConsole backup options
• Format
• Metadata Only
• Garbage Collection
• Transactions in limbo
• Checksums
• Convert to Tables
• Performing a Full Backup with Verbose Output
• Transferring databases to servers running different operating systems