The base name of the backup. This name is used in the directory tree structure that vbr creates for each node.

Each iteration in this series (up to restorePointLimit) consists of the snapshotName and a timestamp for a specific backup. Each series of backups should have a unique and descriptive snapshotName. Full and object-level backups also cannot share names. For most vbr tasks, the snapshotName serves as a useful identifier in diagnostics and system tables. For object restore and replication tasks, snapshotName is used to build schema names in coexist mode operations.

A snapshotName can contain up to 240 characters.

The snapshot name may contain only the following characters; all others are invalid:

• a–z
• A–Z
• 0–9
• Hyphen (-)
• Underscore (_)

Default:  snapshotName

Specifies an absolute path to a temporary storage area on the cluster nodes. The tmp path must be the same on all nodes in the cluster. vbr uses this directory as a temporary location for log files, lock files, and other bookkeeping information while it is copying files from the source cluster node to the destination backup location. vbr also writes backup logs to this location.

Do not specify the same location as your database's data or catalog directory. Any unexpected files or directories in your data or catalog location can cause errors during database start or restore.

The file system at this location must support fcntl lockf (POSIX) file locking.

Default:  /tmp/vbr

The number of historical backups to retain in addition to the most recent backup. For example, if you set restorePointLimit=3, Vertica saves three historical backups, in addition to the most recent backup, for a total of four backups. By default, Vertica maintains a current backup and one historical backup. Enter a positive integer.

Saves multiple backups to the same location, which are shared through hard links. In such cases, listbackup displays the common backup prefix but indicates unique time and date suffixes:

my_archive20111111_205841

Default:  1

For an object-level backup or object replication, specifies the object (schema or table) names to include. To specify more than one object, enter multiple names in a comma-separated list. To identify objects using wildcards, use the includeObjects parameter instead.

Specify table names in the form schema.objectname. For example, to make backups of the table customers from the schema finance, enter finance.customers. If a public table and a schema have the same name, vbr backs up only the schema. Use the schema.objectname convention to avoid confusion.

Object names can include UTF-8 alphanumeric characters. Object names cannot include escape characters, single quote ('), or double quote (") characters.

Specify non-alphanumeric characters with a backslash (\) followed by a hex value. For instance, if the table name is my table (my followed by a space character, then table), enter the object name as follows:

objects=my\20table

If an object name includes a period use double quotes around the name.

This parameter conflicts with the includeObjects parameter. Use one or the other in your configuration file.

If you do not specify any objects, vbr creates a full backup.

Default:  None

Specifies how vbr handles objects of the same name when restoring schema or table backups, one of the following:

• createOrReplace: vbr creates any objects that do not exist. If an object does exist, vbr overwrites it with the version from the archive.
• create: vbr creates any objects that do not exist and does not replace existing objects. If an object being restored does exist, the restore fails.
• coexist: vbr creates the restored version of each object with a name formatted as follows:

  backup_timestamp_object‑name

  This approach allows existing and restored objects to exist simultaneously. If the appended information pushes the schema name past the maximum length of 128 characters, Vertica truncates the name. You can perform a reverse lookup of the original schema name by querying the system table TRUNCATED_SCHEMATA.

In all modes, vbr restores data with the current epoch. Object restore mode settings do not apply to backups and full restores.

Default:  createOrReplace

(Deprecated) The number of backup attempts to make. If the backup fails after exceeding the number of retry attempts, vbr reports an error and stops processing.

Default:  2

(Deprecated) The number of seconds to wait between backup retry attempts, if a failure occurs.

Default:  1

The file name of the password configuration file.

Default:  None

When enabled, vbr confirms that the specified backup locations contain sufficient free space and inodes to allow a successful backup. If a backup location has insufficient resources, vbr displays an error message and cancels the backup. If vbr cannot determine the amount of available space or number of inodes in the backupDir, it displays a warning and continues with the backup.
If you do not include this setting in your configuration file, vbr performs the space check by default.

Default:  True

Identifies database objects and wildcard patterns to include with a backup task. Use a comma to delimit multiple objects and wildcard patterns. Unicode characters are case-sensitive; others are not. For more information, refer to Including and Excluding Objects Using Wildcards.

You can use this parameter together with excludeObjects. This parameter conflicts with the objects parameter. Use one or the other in your configuration file.

Default:  None

Identifies database objects and wildcard patterns to exclude from the set specified by includeObjects. Use a comma to delimit multiple objects and wildcard patterns. Unicode characters are case-sensitive; others are not. For more information, refer to Including and Excluding Objects Using Wildcards.

Use of this parameter requires use of includeObjects.

Default:  None