Firebird Database using file Backup job: IS IT SAFE?

[diosmectal]

I have installed the Veeam B&R community edition. I set up 2 jobs one is a full server nightly backup job and another one is a 2 hours cadence file copy of a Management Sofware Database which is in use during this daily backup, a so called "hot backup" or
"live backup".
This Firebird Database file is a 6gb file and i noticed that it takes about one min to backup it on the NAS.
I'd like to know if is it safe to backup a live sql db like mine scheduling a file copy job in Veeam B&R?
I noticed that the difference between the normal backup jobs report and the file copy job is that the backup job explictly invoke the VSS snapshot service.
Am I going to damage corrupt my database doing like this!
Thanks in advance for helping me in understanding those mechanism.

[wishr]

Hi Dax,

Welcome to Veeam Community Forums and thanks for posting.

File Copy jobs are not designed for performing backups. File Copy jobs copy regular files between any servers managed by Veeam (Windows or Linux servers, or hypervisor hosts), and can be used for various administrative tasks. File Copy jobs do not support processing of virtual disk files belonging to running VMs.

In your case, it's recommended to use scripts to prepare the database for the backup (since it's not supported by VSS). You may check Firebird DB forums to get the required scripts, or maybe some of the community members can provide you with it. With the help of the scripts, you'll be able to get a transactionally consistent backup of the DB.

Your current configuration should not harm the database itself, but the backup performed without freezing the database will not be transactionally consistent.

Thanks

[diosmectal]

So even the incremental backup task isn't reccomended to backup a firebird DB, am I right?

[wishr]

The recommendation is to prepare your DB for the backup before running it (see the above comment), regardless of the backup method. However, even without any preparations, the backup should not harm the DB, but it will not guarantee the transactional consistency of the backup. I.e. transactions can be missing after DB restoration.

[diosmectal]

So this should be the right road:
https://firebirdsql.org/manual/nbackup-lock-unlock.html
It would be nice if the copy job like the backup task include the options to run a script before and after the backup.
I'll decide what to do i prefer the copy job becouse the backup task is heavier it takes 5 min...the copy job is takes just one min.
Thank you for your suggestions! Very polite and clear!

[wishr]

Yes, these scripts should be fine. Regarding File Copy job - once again it's not a backup as I mentioned above and that's why the speed is faster

[newbievm]

Hi,

I need to know how I can backup safely WindowsVM machine with firebird installed?

[HannesK]

Hello,
and welcome to the forums.

I merged your question to one of the existing threads. As mentioned above

In order to create good Firebird database backup with VM backup tool, it is necessary to lock database file with nbackup before the VM backup, and unlock after it. Usually VM backup tool allows executing custom pre- and post-backup scripts, where you can lock/unlock Firebird databases.

One can run the nbackup lock / unlock command with pre / post script from Veeam side, yes.

Best regards,
Hannes