You can run BACKUP in two ways.
- Attended – In attended mode, BACKUP assumes
that an operator is present, and prompts you to mount the archive
media when necessary. With this method, you must run BACKUP interactively
from the command line.
- Unattended – In unattended mode, BACKUP assumes
that no operator is present, and does not issue prompts. Instead,
you must make appropriate estimates of the space required, and set
up your devices accordingly. Any error is considered fatal.
In
some cases, you can use third party software to create backups.
Such products can be particularly useful for unattended backups.
Note: You can run BACKUP from a batch script or
procedure, as well as from Interactive SQL. You can also automate backups using an
event handler. See Administration: Database > Automate Tasks
Using Schedules and Events.