Validating a database

Validating a database is a key part of the backup operation. You must have either DBA or VALIDATE authority to validate a database.

Validation requires exclusive access to each table in turn. For this reason, it is best to validate when there is no other activity on the database.

Caution

Validating a table or an entire database should be performed while no connections are making changes to the database; otherwise, spurious errors may be reported indicating some form of database corruption even though no corruption actually exists.

To check the validity of an entire database (Sybase Central)

Connect to the database as a user with DBA authority.
In the left pane, select the database.
From the File menu, choose Validate Database.
Follow the instructions in the Validate Database Wizard.

Tip

You can also access the Validate Database Wizard from within Sybase Central using any of the following methods:

Right-clicking the database, and choosing Validate Database.
Selecting the database, and choosing Tools » SQL Anywhere 11 » Validate Database.

To check the validity of an entire database (SQL)

Execute the sa_validate stored procedure:
CALL sa_validate;
The procedure returns a single column, named Messages. If all tables are valid, the column contains No errors detected.

For more information, see sa_validate system procedure.

To check the validity of an entire database (Command line)

Run the dbvalid utility:
dbvalid -c "connection-string"
See Validation utility (dbvalid).

Notes

If you are checking the validity of a backup copy, you should run the database in read-only mode so that it is not modified in any way. You can only do this when there were no transactions in progress during the backup. See -r server option.