[databases-discuss] DB online backup vs ufsdump on ZFS

[Richard L. Hamilton]

> Hi
> 
> How would the read charactirestic differ between a
> online backup
> (using some enterprise backup tool) on a db
> tablespace vs an offline
> ufsdump of the file?
> 
> Would ufsdump be more sequential than the online tool
> that would
> follow logical db blocks? (which could become very
> random over time
> with lots of updates)
> 
> Thanks

Without mentioning what DBMS, you're asking people to guess.

But in general I'd prefer to use the DBMS tools to back up a database
rather than storage tools.  The former will be more likely to be able
to get a consistent snapshot of the database with less (or no) database
down time.  They may also be amenable to being restored on any other
instance of the same DBMS (perhaps given that the database schema is
available and the database is first initialized on the other instance),
even across platforms.  And the underlying storage may have big
unused chunks that don't need to be backed up, but only the DBMS
would know that.