About NetBackup for DB2 with Snapshot Client operations

NetBackup for DB2 users can initiate snapshot operations directly from the command line using the bpdb2proxy command. However, it is more common to place the command into a backup or restore script and the script is then executed. The script specifies the DB2 objects to be backed up or restored by the NetBackup for DB2 agent on the client. The script can either be executed directly on the client or can be specified as the backup selection in a DB2 policy. If a script is specified in a policy, the master server executes the script when automatic schedules are due to run.

When the agent is started, the agent checks that the policy it uses for the backup is configured with the Snapshot Client attributes. The agent then initiates a snapshot that results in file-based backups of the DB2 files using NetBackup to perform the data movement.

The NetBackup for DB2 agent uses DB2 APIs to put the data files into a quiesced mode. NetBackup then creates a snapshot of the files. After the snapshot is created, NetBackup for DB2 uses the DB2 APIs to take the data files out of quiesced mode. The data files are in quiesced mode only for the period of time it takes to create a snapshot.