Backing up and restoring the database
Important
Inadequate security on backups can compromise overall database security. Be sure to secure backup locations and strictly limit access to backups only to users who already have permissions to access all database data.Vertica supplies a comprehensive utility, vbr, that lets you back up and restore a full database, as well as create backups of specific schema or tables. You should back up your database regularly and before major or destructive operations.
All vbr operations rely on a configuration file that describes your database, backup locations, and other parameters. Typically you use the same configuration file for both the backup and restore operations. To create your first configuration file, copy one of the sample files for backup listed in Sample vbr configuration files. Edit the copy to specify a snapshot (backup) name, your database details, and where to back up. The comments in the sample file guide you.
The following example shows a full backup:
$ vbr -t backup --config full-backup.ini
Starting backup of database VTDB.
Participating nodes: v_vmart_node0001, v_vmart_node0002, v_vmart_node0003, v_vmart_node0004.
Snapshotting database.
Snapshot complete.
Approximate bytes to copy: 2315056043 of 2356089422 total.
[==================================================] 100%
Copying backup metadata.
Finalizing backup.
Backup complete!
By default, there is no screen output other than the progress bar.
You can restore the entire database or selected schemas and tables. You can also use vbr to replicate data from one database to another or to copy an entire cluster. For more information about vbr, see Backing up and restoring the database.