About catalog backups
The catalog backup is designed for active environments in which continual backup activity occurs. The catalog backup can be performed while regular backup activity occurs.
The catalog backup is policy-based so it has all of the scheduling flexibility of a regular backup policy. Because the policy allows for incremental backups, catalog backup times for large catalogs can be significantly reduced. For Sybase SQL Anywhere, an incremental backup means a backup of the transaction log only. Transaction logs are managed automatically and truncated after each successful backup.
The catalog lets you recover either the entire catalog or pieces of the catalog. (For example, the databases separately from the image catalog.)
The catalog backup performs the following tasks:
Backs up the catalog while continual client backups are in progress.
Performs a full or an incremental catalog backup.
Runs the scheduled catalog backups.
Copies the relational database files to the staging directory and then backs up that directory.
Creates the disaster recovery package.
Catalog backups to tape also include the following items:
Spans multiple tapes for a catalog backup.
Allows for a flexible pool of catalog tapes.
Catalog backups to tape use media from the CatalogBackup volume pool only.
Appends to existing data on tape.
You can configure a catalog backup by using one of the following methods:
By using wizards:
The Catalog Backup Wizard.
See Using the Catalog Backup Wizard to configure a catalog backup.
The Policy Configuration Wizard.
See Using the Policy Configuration Wizard to configure a catalog backup.
Either wizard automatically includes all the necessary catalog files to include the database files (NBDB, NBAZDB, and BMRDB) and any catalog configuration files (vxdbms.conf, server.conf, databases.conf).
By creating a backup policy manually and indicating the NBU-Catalog policy type.
Note:
Before you create a new catalog backup policy, you must ensure that a passphrase for the disaster recovery package is set.
See Disaster recovery packages.
See Setting a passphrase to encrypt disaster recovery packages.
If the passphrase is not set, catalog backups fail.
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