Storage of TEXT and BYTE Data

You assign a TEXT or BYTE column to the optical-storage subsystem with the CREATE TABLE statement, which allows you to place the column data in an optical family. Prior to executing the CREATE TABLE statement, the optical-storage administrator must create an optical family name with the management software that the vendor of the optical-storage subsystem provides. You can then use the column-definition portion of the CREATE TABLE statement to assign the column to the optical family. For more information, see Assigning TEXT and BYTE Columns to an Optical Platter.

TEXT and BYTE data stored on optical media are not backed up (or archived) by the ontape, onload, and onunload utilities. However, the dbexport and dbimport utilities can be used to unload and load TEXT and BYTE data stored on optical media.

The Optical Subsystem can store TEXT and BYTE data on an optical volume either sequentially or in a cluster. The following sections describe each of these methods.