DB2 10.5 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows

Backing up to named pipes

Support is now available for database backup to (and database restore from) local named pipes on UNIX operating systems.

Before you begin

Both the writer and the reader of the named pipe must be on the same machine. The pipe must exist on a local file system. Because the named pipe is treated as a local device, there is no need to specify that the target is a named pipe.

Procedure

Create a named pipe. The following is an AIX® example:
```
   mkfifo /u/dmcinnis/mypipe
```
If this backup image is going to be used by the restore utility, the restore operation must be invoked before the backup operation, so that it does not miss any data:
```
   db2 restore db sample from /u/dmcinnis/mypipe into mynewdb
```
Use this pipe as the target for a database backup operation:
```
   db2 backup db sample to /u/dmcinnis/mypipe
```