> Backing up a database of this size would probably be best using a tool like
> rsync, that only moves changes between files.
>
> http://rsync.samba.org/
>
> Steps would be:
>
> Shutdown the database on the primary server
>
> Rsync your .fdb file to your backup machine (could take several minutes,
> depending on network), which then makes both .fdb files identical
>
> Start your database back up again.
>
> Rsync is available for all platforms, and is completely free.
>
> We use it for all of our firebird synchronizations, even on live databases,
> although we use FreeBSD filesystem snapshots, which Linux and Windows are
> yet to "invent".

I think it's the first time i heard about someone using rsync to
synchronize firebird databases. I would like to know more about your
experience.

- Did you measure if rsync is efficient to make its job in this case?
I don't know FB internals, but after some thousands of transactions,
is the database file in a state rsync can track its similarities and
still optimize the transfers?

- Do you really do this on live databases? Never had problems? Maybe
if i lock the database (as if i would make a file copy) i could use
this approach on windows/linux.

- Is there someone doing this?

Regards,

Fabiano.