DB2 Version 9.7 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows

Restore overview

The simplest form of the DB2® RESTORE DATABASE command requires only that you specify the alias name of the database that you want to restore. For example:

   db2 restore db sample

In this example, because the SAMPLE database exists and will be replaced when the RESTORE DATABASE command is issued, the following message is returned:

SQL2539W  Warning!  Restoring to an existing database that is the same as
the backup image database.  The database files will be deleted.
Do you want to continue ? (y/n)

If you specify y, the restore operation should complete successfully.

A database restore operation requires an exclusive connection: that is, no applications can be running against the database when the operation starts, and the restore utility prevents other applications from accessing the database until the restore operation completes successfully. A table space restore operation, however, can be done online.

A table space is not usable until the restore operation (possibly followed by rollforward recovery) completes successfully.

If you have tables that span more than one table space, you should back up and restore the set of table spaces together.

When doing a partial or subset restore operation, you can use either a table space-level backup image, or a full database-level backup image and choose one or more table spaces from that image. All the log files associated with these table spaces from the time that the backup image was created must exist.

You can restore a database from a backup image taken on a 32-bit level into a 64-bit level, but not vice versa.

If you are restoring backups from 32-bit level environments to 64-bit level environments, review your database configuration parameters to ensure that they are optimized for the 64-bit instance environment. For example, the statement heap's default value is lower in 32-bit environments than in 64-bit environments.

The DB2 backup and restore utilities should be used to backup and restore your databases. Moving a fileset from one machine to another is not recommended as this may compromise the integrity of the database.

Under certain conditions, you can use transportable sets with the RESTORE DATABASE command to move databases. For more information, see Transporting database schemas.

For restoring database backups, you can use the task assistant available in IBM® Data Studio Version 3.1 or later. Task assistants can guide you through the process of setting options, reviewing the automatically generated commands to perform the task, and running these commands. For more details, see Administering databases with task assistants.