Re: Unloading a live database

Hi, You can try the tool "onunload" which is a command line backup tool offered by Informix, this tool will backup an entire database, and it will not lock the database and block "update" operation on those tables. And then you can use "onload" to restore the database to another instance. But, "onunload" will create a binary image of the database, so, you'd better transfer data among instances under the same or compatiable IDS version such as "7.23" Here are mostly used command line: 1. onunload -t /dev/rmt/0mn -b 16 -s 2000000 cookdb: This command will tell onunload to unload a database named "cookdb" to a tape named "/dev/rmt/0mn", and the tape size will be 2G, and block size is 16k. 2. onload -t /dev/rmt/0mn -d tmndbs -b 16 -s 2000000 cookdb: This command will restore the database "cookdb" to the dbspace "tmndbs" Notes: block size and tape size must be same between unload and load Enjoy it! chen ---------- > From: Alanoly Andrews <AlanolyA@planmatics.com> > To: 'informix-list@iiug.org' > Subject: Unloading a live database > Date: Wednesday, August 04, 1999 9:23 PM > > > Hi, > > I need to unload a "database" while the instance is running > and accepting updates on the database. I see that the "onunload" > utility of Informix takes a lock on the database and does not allow > users to modify the Database during the unload process. > The unloaded database is to be loaded into another instance > which need not have the same DBspace configurations as the > first instance. This seems to rule out the use of archiving utilities > like "ontape" which require identical DBspace configurations for > a restore. > > I'd appreciate your input into solving this problem. > > Thanks. > > Alanoly J. Andrews >