Configuring a server instance to use shared memory

You can configure a server instance to use shared memory to resolve slow database backups that can occur because of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) loopback problems.

Before you begin

Tip: For Windows, in addition to the TCP/IP communication protocol, you can set and use the Named Pipes communication method when you backup or restore databases. When you run the server and client on the same Windows machine, the Named Pipes method will help to avoid loopback problems. For more information about setting the Named Pipes communication method, see Configuring server and client communications.

Complete the following steps to update the database backup node configuration for your server to enable shared memory:

1. Ensure that the server options file, dsmserv.opt, contains the following lines:

   COMMMethod SHAREdmem
   SHMPort         1510

2. Locate the dsm.sys client API system options file, which is stored in the following location by default:
   server_bin_directory/dbbkapi/dsm.sys
3. Modify the stanza for the database backup node in the file, dsm.sys.
   1. Remove the following lines from the stanza:

      COMMMethod TCPip
      TCPServeraddress 127.0.0.1
      TCPPort 1500 

   2. Add the following lines to the stanza:

      COMMMethod SHAREdmem
      SHMPort 1510

   3. Save and close the file.