Automatic database backup

A database might become unusable due to various hardware or software failures. Automatic database backup simplifies database backup management tasks for the DBA by always ensuring that a recent full backup of the database is performed as needed.

Restriction: Automatic backups does not support the following configurations:

Databases in an IBM Db2 pureScale environment.

It determines the need to perform a backup operation based on one or more of the following measures:

You have never completed a full database backup
The time elapsed since the last full backup is more than a specified number of hours
The transaction log space consumed since the last backup is more than a specified number of 4 KB pages (in archive logging mode only).

Protect your data by planning and implementing a disaster recovery strategy for your system. If suitable to your needs, you may incorporate the automatic database backup feature as part of your backup and recovery strategy.

If roll-forward recovery (archive logging) is enabled on the database, then automatic database backup can be enabled for either online or offline backup. Otherwise, only offline backup is available. Automatic database backup supports disk, tape, IBM® Storage Protect, vendor DLL media types, and remote storage.

Note: IBM Storage Protect is the new product name for Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM).

The product now known as IBM Storage Protect was named IBM Spectrum Protect in levels earlier than 8.1.19. To learn more about the brand change, see IBM Spectrum Protect brand change to IBM Storage Protect.
The product previously known as IBM Spectrum Protect™ was named IBM Tivoli® Storage Manager in releases earlier than Version 7.1.3. To learn more about the rebranding transition, see Tivoli Storage Manager branding transition to IBM Spectrum Protect™.
IBM Spectrum Protect and IBM Tivoli Storage Manager 7.1 reached end of support (EOS) at 31 December 2021, see: IBM Spectrum Protect and Tivoli Storage Manager 7.1 products End of Support 31 December 2021.

If backup to disk is selected, then the automatic backup feature regularly deletes backup images from the directory specified in the Configure Automatic Maintenance wizard. Only the most recent backup image is guaranteed to be available at any given time. It is recommended that this directory be kept exclusively for the automatic backup feature and not be used to store other backup images.

The automatic database backup feature can be enabled or disabled by using the auto_db_backup and auto_maint database configuration parameters. In a partitioned database environment, the automatic database backup runs on each database partition if the database configuration parameters are enabled on that database partition.

You can also configure automatic backup by using one of the system-stored procedures that are called AUTOMAINT_SET_POLICY and AUTOMAINT_SET_POLICYFILE.