Once upon a time, Phil Stracchino <alaric AT metrocast DOT net> said:
> You also mentioned "SQL/mail".  You should not be backing up SQL DBs at
> the file level.  Doing so does not guarantee a consistent backup of the
> DB because there is time skew between the beginning and end of the DB
> backup (and can be time skew even within individual tables).  If all
> you're doing is a file-level backup of the DB data directories, you
> almost certainly only *think* you have backups of your DB.

If you don't want to go for DB-specific backup tools, you can get a
consistent backup of most databases with a filesystem or volume
snapshot, as long as you prepare the database for the snapshot.

For example (on the small DB end), MySQL has a command to freeze and
flush in-memory buffers, "flush tables with read lock".  You can have a
script that connects to MySQL, runs the command, snapshots the
filesystem or volume, and then runs "unlock tables".  A backup of the
snapshot should give you a consistent MySQL backup.

Other databases have similar (sometimes more complicated) methods that
don't require a full dump.
-- 
Chris Adams <cmadams AT hiwaay DOT net>
Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Internet Services
I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.

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