8.4.2. Backing up the Database

Red Hat recommends performing nightly backups of the Embedded Database and moving the resulting directory to another system via NFS, SCP, FTP, etc. Preferably, this backup system resides off-site. To conduct a backup, shut down the database and related services first by issuing the following command as root:

/usr/sbin/rhn-satellite stop

Then switch to the oracle user and issue this command to initiate the backup:

db-control backup DIRNAME

Backup files are stored in the directory specified. Note that this is a cold backup; the database must be stopped before running this command. This process takes several minutes. The first backup is a good indicator of how long subsequent backups will take.

Once the backup is complete, return to root user mode and restart the database and related services with the following command:

/usr/sbin/rhn-satellite start

You should then copy that backup to another system using rsync or another file-transfer utility. Red Hat strongly recommends scheduling the backup process automatically using cron jobs. For instance, back up the system at 3 a.m. and then copy the backup to the separate repository (partition, disk, or system) at 6 a.m.