Viewing backups

You can view backups in any of three ways:.

You can view backups in any of three ways:

Use vbr to list the backups that reside on the local or remote backup host (requires a configuration file).
View historical information about backups using the DATABASE_BACKUPS systems table. Because the database_backups system table contains historical information, it is not updated when you delete the backups
Open the vbr log file to check the status of a backup. The log file resides on the node where you have run vbr, in the directory specified by the vbr configuration parameter tempDir, by default set to /tmp/vbr.

List backups with vbr

To list backups on the backup hosts, use vbr --task listbackup with a specific configuration file. The following example shows how you can list backups, using a full backup configuration file, bak.ini:

$ vbr --task listbackup --config-file /home/dbadmin/bak.ini

The following table contains information about each output column returned from a vbr listbackup task:

Output Column	Description
`backup`	The name of the generated backup. Vertica names the backup by combining the name of the `vbr` configuration file with a timestamp. Use the timestamp to identify an archive when you perform a restore.
`backup_type`	The type of the backup, either full or object.
`epoch`	The epoch when the backup was created.
`objects`	The objects being backed up. For a full backup, this field is blank.
`include_patterns`	Any wildcard patterns included in your object backup tasks using the `includeObjects` parameter in your configuration file. For a full backup, this field is not displayed.
`exclude_patterns`	Any wildcard patterns included in your object backup tasks using the `excludeObjects` parameter in your configuration file. For a full backup, this field is not displayed.
`nodes (hosts)`	Enterprise Mode only. The hosts that received the backup and the database node names that provided the backups.
`version`	The version of Vertica used to create the backup.
`file_system_type`	The storage location file system of the Vertica hosts that comprise this backup. Returns Linux, HDFS, GCS, or S3.
`communal_storage`	Eon Mode only. The communal storage location for the backup.

The following example shows a list of full backups of a three node cluster to a single backup host, bkhost.

backup                backup_type  epoch   objects  include_patterns  exclude_patterns  nodes (hosts)                                                                version  file_system_type
bak_20160414_134452   full         749                                   v_vmart_node0001(bkhost), v_vmart_node0002(bkhost), v_vmart_node0003(bkhost) v10.0.0  [Linux]
bak_20160413_174544   full         659                                   v_vmart_node0001(bkhost), v_vmart_node0002(bkhost), v_vmart_node0003(bkhost) v10.0.0  [Linux]

Note

The listbackup task fails if you attempt to view backups on a cluster without a database when the backups were made to local hosts using the [] shortcut. Vbr requires a database to provide the location of the mapped local host.

Viewing all backups in a location

Use the --list-all parameter with the listbackup task to view a list of all the snapshots stored on the hosts and paths listed in the specified configuration file.

$ vbr --task listbackup --list-all --config-file /home/dbadmin/Nightly.ini

The following example shows a --list-all task using the configuration file Nightly.ini. That configuration file references the hosts doca01, doca02, and doca03 and the path /vertica/backup. The output shows that these locations contain not just the backups created using Nightly, but also backups created using a configuration file called Weekly.ini.

backup                   backup_type  epoch  objects      include_patterns  exclude_patterns  nodes(hosts)                                      version  file_system_type
Weekly_20170508_183249   full         3449                                      vmart_1(doca01), vmart_2(doca01), vmart_3(doca01) v10.0.0  [Linux]
Weekly_20170508_182816   full         2901                                      vmart_1(doca01), vmart_2(doca02), vmart_3(doca03) v10.0.0  [Linux]
Weekly_20170508_182754   full         2649                                      vmart_1(doca01), vmart_2(doca02), vmart_3(doca03) v10.0.0  [Linux]
Nightly_20170508_183034  object       1794   sales_schema                       vmart_1(doca01), vmart_2(doca02), vmart_3(doca03) v10.0.0  [Linux]
Nightly_20170508_181808  object       1469   sales_schema                       vmart_1(doca01), vmart_2(doca02), vmart_3(doca03) v10.0.0  [Linux]
Nightly_20171117_193906  object       173    sales_schema                       vmart_1(doca01), vmart_2(doca02), vmart_3(doca03) v10.0.0  [Linux]

You can also use the the --json and --list-output-file parameters with the listbackup task to output the same content in JSON delimited format to a display or to an output file. For more information, refer to vbr reference.

Query database_backups

Use the following query to list historical information about backups. The objects column lists which objects were included in object-level backups. Do not use the backup_timestamp value when restoring an archive. Instead, use the values provided by vbr --task listbackup, when restoring an archive.

=> SELECT * FROM v_monitor.database_backups;
-[ RECORD 1 ]----+------------------------------
backup_timestamp | 2013-05-10 14:41:12.673381-04
node_name        | v_vmart_node0003
snapshot_name    | schemabak
backup_epoch     | 174
node_count       | 3
file_system_type | [Linux]
objects          | public, store, online_sales
-[ RECORD 2 ]----+------------------------------
backup_timestamp | 2013-05-13 11:17:30.913176-04
node_name        | v_vmart_node0003
snapshot_name    | kantibak
backup_epoch     | 175
node_count       | 3
file_system_type | [Linux]
objects          |
-[ RECORD 13 ]---+------------------------------
backup_timestamp | 2013-05-16 07:02:23.721657-04
node_name        | v_vmart_node0003
snapshot_name    | objectbak
backup_epoch     | 180
node_count       | 3
file_system_type | [Linux]
objects          | test, test2
-[ RECORD 14 ]---+------------------------------
backup_timestamp | 2013-05-16 07:19:44.952884-04
node_name        | v_vmart_node0003
snapshot_name    | table1bak
backup_epoch     | 180
node_count       | 3
file_system_type | [Linux]
objects          | test
-[ RECORD 15 ]---+------------------------------
backup_timestamp | 2013-05-16 07:20:18.585076-04
node_name        | v_vmart_node0003
snapshot_name    | table2bak
backup_epoch     | 180
node_count       | 3
file_system_type | [Linux]
objects          | test2