sybdump(1) LOCAL sybdump(1)

NAME

sybdump, sybload — DUMP/LOAD Sybase databases using libpipe

SYNOPSIS

sybdump [−D] [−S server] [−U user] [−P password] [{ −j | −z } level] [−f database.dmp] [−T timeout] [−t] database [> database.dmp]

sybload [−L] [−S server] [−U user] [−P password] [{ −j | −z } level] [−f database.dmp] [−T timeout] [−t] database [< database.dmp]

(sybload is an alternative name for sybdump implying the −L switch. Similarly, −D explicitly specifies a DUMP request, regardless of the invoked name.)

sybdump [−S sourceserver] [−U sourceuser] [−P sourcepassword] −s destinationserver [−u destuser] [−p destpassword] [−t] database

DESCRIPTION

The sybdump utility relies on the libpipe plugin being installed on the target Sybase server and requests the server to send (or, in the case of −L -- receive) a dump of the specified database via a direct network connection.

This is, usually, faster and more reliable than using NFS for dumping onto storage located on another machine. The method also allows on-the-fly processing of the data (such as (de)compressing, (un)encrypting, etc.).

Unlike when using a remote backup server, no server software needs to be running on the client computer. Instead, libpipe must be present on the server.

The first two usages are orthogonal -- they DUMP or LOAD directly to stdout or from stdin. The third one is different. In this case, the data is not, actually, sent to the client (sybdump), but is forwarded by the sourceserver to the expecting destinationserver. When thus invoked, sybdump will simply report the progress messages arriving from both servers. libpipe must be installed on both servers, of course.

When requesting a DUMP (first or third usage), the database will be prepared according to Sybase’s requirements for a clean dump loadable into a server, that, potentially, runs on a machine of different architecture.

A just LOADed database (second or third usage) will be automatically brought online (thus triggering possible Sybase’s analysis, conversion, etc.), and the sp_post_xpload procedure will be invoked if advised by the server (such as in cross-endian database transfer).

OPTIONS

The default value for −U and −u is "sa" (user to login as). The default passwords are non-existant (NULL).

If the dumpfile is not specified with the −f option, the usual stdin (for LOAD) or stdout (for DUMP) is used.

[{ −j | −z } level] option specifies compression (and level) of the dump by either Compression Library (libz, −lz) or library ‘‘libbz2’’ Use if you wish sybdump to compress directly, or, when LOADing, to hint sybload to uncompress. When LOADing seekable files, the check for compression is done automatically, but when stdin is the output of another command, an explicit −z | −j (with any level number) is currently required for decompression to function.

−t can be specified to tell sybdump to ignore SIGINT. This obscure feature is currently used by dumpall, to allow the ongoing dumps to finish upon Ctrl-C.

−T timeout specifies the maximum time (in seconds) to wait for the server to respond. The default value is -1 (INFTIM), which means forever. You should allow the server at least a few minutes...

EXAMPLES
sybdump test | gzip -9 > test.cmp

sybdump -z 9 test > test.cmp

Both of these allow to run the (CPU-intensive) compression on the client-side, where the CPU may be faster and/or the gzip (first example) or Compression Library (libz, −lz) (second example) may be assembler-optimized.

gzcat test.cmp | sybdump −L test

sybload test < test.cmp

LOAD the database from the previous example back into the default server.

sybdump −S BIGBIRD125 −s BERT125 RD_BACKUP RD_CURRENT

Transfer the backup of the RD-database from server BIGBIRD125 (where it is named RD_BACKUP) to BERT125 .

SEE ALSO

libpipe(1), bzip2(1), gzip(1), libpipe(1), zlib(3); Sybase’s DUMP/LOAD manual.

AUTHORS

Virtual Estates, Inc. <libpipe+sybdump@virtual-estates.com> wrote this open-source utility and the manual page to complement and illustrate their libpipe plugin for Sybase backup-server (sybmultbuf).

Feb 27, 2007