Administrator Guides EN Owner's manual

Data Maintenance
10-3 41-001391-00 Rev 03 – 04.2012
Backup Details
The backup file contains the data of the database, but does not include the schema. The schema therefore has to be rec-
reated before the backup file can be restored. Backup files can be restored even if the schema has changed in minor
ways, e.g., addition of fields to tables can be accommodated.
Because the backup file is a text file, the file can be restored on different platforms, or added to an existing database (i.e.,
merged with existing data).
The backup file does not contain column names or types, as this increases the backup file size and is not needed to suc-
cessfully restore the database.
A typical line in the backup file looks like:
INSERT INTO "system_settings" VALUES ('monitor','All');
The vipr_backup_db command compresses the text backup file using gzip, which is why it appends .gz to the file name
specified on the command line.
Offserver backup
This module enables the administrator to make periodic offserver backups at intervals and times specified by the admin-
istrator.
Note:
The vipr_restore_db command deletes existing data and creates the schema before restoring the backup file, whereas
the vipr_merge_db command attempts to merge data. (Merging data may not always succeed.)
Note:
As stated before, the offserver backup also makes a local backup of the database on a daily basis in addition to option-
ally copying it to a remote server. This is not a configurable option, and always happens. (It also performs various
cleanup functions.)