> Is there a way of a smart backup to ensure that I can restore in the
> event of failures.
>

Heck yeah!

Here's a short shell script to do the job. I liked the idea of restoring
each DB, just to make sure everything worked ok.
Sure, it'll increase the time taken to do backups, but it's probably worth
it.

========== Start of listing of fb_backups.sh ==================
#!/bin/sh
########################################################
#
# Tweak these to suit your system
#
########################################################
db_loc="/u1/db"
backup_loc="/usr/local/www/data/fb_backups"
restore_db="localhost:/u1/db2/temp_restore.fdb"
db_user="sysdba"
db_pass="masterkey"




########################################################
#
# You shouldn't need to change anything below this line
#
########################################################
# Move to the database directory
cd ${db_loc}

for i in `ls *.fdb`
do
echo "Backing up '${i}' to '${backup_loc}/${i}.fbk'"

# Backup each database to a file
time gbak -b -t -user ${db_user} -pass ${db_pass} localhost:${db_loc}/${i}
${backup_loc}/${i}.fbk

# Attempt to restore each database to a temporary database
echo "Attempting restore of '${backup_loc}/${i}.fbk' to temporary database
'${restore_db}'"
time gbak -r -user ${db_user} -pass ${db_pass} ${backup_loc}/${i}.fbk
${restore_db} && echo "Restore of '${backup_loc}/${i}.fbk' was successful"
|| echo "!!! RESTORE FAILED !!!"

# Peek inside the temporary database
echo "Listing tables in restored database"
echo "show tables;" | isql -u ${db_user} -p ${db_pass} ${restore_db}


# Drop the temporary database
echo "Dropping temporary database"
echo "drop database;" | isql -u ${db_user} -p ${db_pass} ${restore_db}

# Compress each backup file
echo "Compressing '${backup_loc}/${i}.fbk' to '${backup_loc}/${i}.fbk.gz'"
gzip -f ${backup_loc}/${i}.fbk
gzip -l ${backup_loc}/${i}.fbk.gz

done
echo "All database backups completed"


============= End of listing of fb_backup.sh =================



When run, it produces the following output, including:
time taken to backup
time taken to restore
All tables in the restored DB
Compression stats in the .fbk file once compressed



nweeks@dungeon:~/bin> ./fb_backups.sh
Backing up 'advopenhome.fdb' to
'/usr/local/www/data/fb_backups/advopenhome.fdb.fbk'
29.56 real 8.81 user 0.89 sys
Attempting restore of '/usr/local/www/data/fb_backups/advopenhome.fdb.fbk'
to temporary database 'localhost:/u1/db2/temp_restore.fdb'
75.51 real 13.55 user 7.80 sys
Restore of '/usr/local/www/data/fb_backups/advopenhome.fdb.fbk' was
successful
Listing tables in restored database
Database: localhost:/u1/db2/temp_restore.fdb, User: sysdba
CDMNKY_APP CDMNKY_FIELDS
CDMNKY_NAVLINKS CDMNKY_NAVMENU
CDMNKY_NAVMENULINKS CDMNKY_SUBFORMS
CDMNKY_TITLES REPL$CDMNKY_APP
REPL$CDMNKY_FIELDS REPL$CDMNKY_NAVLINKS
REPL$CDMNKY_NAVMENU REPL$CDMNKY_NAVMENULINKS
REPL$CDMNKY_SUBFORMS REPL$CDMNKY_TITLES
REPL$TBL_AGENT REPL$TBL_CONTACT
REPL$TBL_PROP REPL$TBL_PUBLICATION
REPL$TLKP_PRICECOMM REPL$TLKP_SUBURB
TBL_AGENT TBL_AGENTFILE
TBL_CONTACT TBL_PROP
TBL_PUBLICATION TLKP_PRICECOMM
TLKP_SUBURB
Dropping temporary database
Database: localhost:/u1/db2/temp_restore.fdb, User: sysdba
Compressing '/usr/local/www/data/fb_backups/advopenhome.fdb.fbk' to
'/usr/local/www/data/fb_backups/advopenhome.fdb.fbk.gz'
compressed uncompr. ratio uncompressed_name
869149 4208128 79.3%
/usr/local/www/data/fb_backups/advopenhome.fdb.fbk
Backing up 'cm_storage.fdb' to
'/usr/local/www/data/fb_backups/cm_storage.fdb.fbk'
10.33 real 2.56 user 0.28 sys
Attempting restore of '/usr/local/www/data/fb_backups/cm_storage.fdb.fbk' to
temporary database 'localhost:/u1/db2/temp_restore.fdb'
gbak: ERROR: attempt to store duplicate value (visible to active
transactions) in unique index "RDB$PRIMARY2"
gbak: Index "RDB$PRIMARY2" failed to activate because:
gbak: The unique index has duplicate values or NULLs.
gbak: Delete or Update duplicate values or NULLs, and activate index with
gbak: ALTER INDEX "RDB$PRIMARY2" ACTIVE;
action cancelled by trigger (3) to preserve data integrity
-Cannot deactivate primary index
32.65 real 2.95 user 2.87 sys
!!! RESTORE FAILED !!!
Listing tables in restored database
Database: localhost:/u1/db2/temp_restore.fdb, User: sysdba
CM$XMLDESIGN CM$XMLKEYS

Dropping temporary database
Database: localhost:/u1/db2/temp_restore.fdb, User: sysdba
Compressing '/usr/local/www/data/fb_backups/cm_storage.fdb.fbk' to
'/usr/local/www/data/fb_backups/cm_storage.fdb.fbk.gz'
compressed uncompr. ratio uncompressed_name
116694 1719808 93.2% /usr/local/www/data/fb_backups/cm_storage.fdb.fbk



WooHaa! It appears I have a database that can't be restored! Lucky this
script was around!

Firebird release team: Feel free to include this in Unix releases if you
want to.

Nige.