Restore Requires Exclusive Write Access

Once RESTORE starts, no other users are allowed to access the specified database.

If you restore from a full backup and then from one or more incremental backups, you should ensure that no users are modifying the database between the restores. The modifications are permitted, but you cannot perform any more incremental restores. Instead, you must start the entire restore again.

This restriction extends to any incremental restores you may need if your system crashes during recovery. If you need to recover from a system or media failure that occurs during a restore, you must do one of the following:

Continue the original sequence of full and incremental restore operations, or
Perform a full restore, followed by any incremental restores needed to fully recover your database.

The default database server startup setting -gd DBA makes the SERVER OPERATOR system privilege a requirement for starting up a database. When a user with the SERVER OPERATOR system privilege runs RESTORE, the command automatically starts the database, gets the information it needs for the restore, and then stops the database. At the end of the restore, the command starts the database, issues a checkpoint, and stops it again. This procedure ensures that the DBA has exclusive write access throughout a restore.

When all incremental restores are complete, a user with the SERVER OPERATOR system privilege issues the START DATABASE command again to allow other users access to the database.

To restore a multiplex database, see Administration: Multiplex.