1.0

Prerequisites and Best Practices
• Run this command during a period of low activity in your system. The backup does not block system activities,
but it uses file system resources on all hosts in your distributed system and can affect performance.
• Do not try to create backup files from a running system using file copy commands. You will get incomplete
and unusable copies.
• Make sure the backup directory <Back_UP_DIR> directory exists and has the proper permissions for your
members to write to it and create subdirectories.
•
You might want to compact your disk store before running the backup. See the sqlf
compact-all-disk-stores command in Online Compaction.
• Make sure that those SQLFire members that host persistent data are running in the distributed system. Offline
members cannot back up their disk stores. (A complete backup can still be performed if all table data is available
in the running members.)
Specifying the Backup Directory
The directory you specify for backup can be used multiple times. Each backup first creates a top level directory
for the backup, under the directory you specify, identified to the minute. You can use one of two formats:
• Use a single physical location, such as a network file server. (For example,
/export/fileServerDirectory/sqlfBackupLocation).
• Use a directory that is local to all host machines in the system. (For example, ./sqlfBackupLocation).
Example
Using a backup directory that is local to all host machines in the system:
sqlf backup ./sqlfBackupLocation
Output Messages from sqlf backup
When you run sqlf backup, it reports on the outcome of the operation.
If any members were offline when you run sqlf backup, you get this message:
The backup may be incomplete. The following disk
stores are not online: DiskStore at hostc.vmware.com
/home/dsmith/dir3
A complete backup can still be performed if all table data is available in the running members.
The tool reports on the success of the operation. If the operation is successful, you see a
message like this:
Connecting to distributed system:
locators=warsaw.vmware.com26340
The following disk stores were backed up:
DiskStore at hosta.vmware.com /home/dsmith/dir1
DiskStore at hostb.vmware.com /home/dsmith/dir2
Backup successful.
If the operation does not succeed at backing up all known members, you see a message like
this:
Connecting to distributed system:
locators=warsaw.vmware.com26357
The following disk stores were backed up:
DiskStore at hosta.vmware.com /home/dsmith/dir1
DiskStore at hostb.vmware.com /home/dsmith/dir2
The backup may be incomplete. The following disk stores are
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vFabric SQLFire Reference