Installation guide

Chapter 8. Maintenance 51
8.4.1. DB Control Options
RHN DB Control offers many command line options. To use them, as oracle insert the option and
the appropriate value, if needed, after the db-control command.
Option Description
help Lists these db-control options with additional
details.
backup DIRNAME Backs up the database to the directory specified.
examine DIRNAME Examines the contents of a backup directory. Returns
the timestamp of backup creation and reports on its
contents.
report Reports on current usage of database space.
restore DIRNAME Restores the database from backup kept in
DIRNAME. Database must be stopped for this
command to run successfully.
start Starts the database instance. This can also be
accomplished by issuing the service
rhn-database start command as root.
status Shows the current status of the database, either
"running" or "offline".
stop Stops the database instance. This can also be
accomplished by issuing the service
rhn-database stop command as root.
verify DIRNAME Verifies the contents of the backup kept in
DIRNAME. This command checks the md5sums of
each of the files kept in the backup.
Table 8-1. RHN DB Control Options
8.4.2. Backing up the Database
Red Hat recommends performing nightly backups of the Embedded Database and moving the re-
sulting directory to another system either NFS, SCP, FTP, etc. Preferably, this backup system resides
off-site. To conduct a backup, shut down the database and related services first by issuing the following
commands in this order as root:
service httpd stop
service taskomatic stop
service rhn-database stop
Then switch to the oracle user and issue this command to initiate the backup:
db-control backup DIRNAME
Backup files will be stored in the directory specified. Note that this is a cold backup; The database
must be stopped before running this command. This process takes several minutes. The first backup
will be a good indicator of how long subsequent backups will take.