Doug,

> On 2/29/12 2:50 PM, todderamaa wrote:
> > Maybe with the possibility of corruption, I should tell him to exclude
> > the database files from backup entirely and only backup the gbk files
> > that are created in the evening.
> This is the usual way to backup Firebird databases in situations like your
> clients have. Operating on the live database files is a quick way to corrupted
> backup copies. If you have not experienced corruption either you have been
> lucky or have not actually tried restoring from many of those backup copies.
>
> The client network admins should be aware of this special case when
> databases are being used. For this reason some database vendors have an
> API that backup software can use to ensure the database activity does not
> interfere with the backup operation. The vendors of backup systems usually
> charge extra for these modules that handle various databases.
> Firebird, however, does not have such an API.

Actually, that is not true.

The NBackup functionality allows a database file to be quiesced (with changes written to a delta file) to allow for OS level backups to be performed (thru Lock and Unlock options).

Nbackup can be invoked thru a BAT or script file, as well as via SQL statements.

Details on the usage of nbackup can be found at http://www.firebirdsql.org/pdfmanual/Firebird-nbackup.pdf


Sean