11. What are the three types of database critical events that can trigger the database recovery process? Give some examples for each one.
Backup and recovery functions constitute a very important component of today’s DBMSs. Some DBMSs provide functions that allow the database administrator to perform and schedule automatic database backups to permanent secondary storage devices, such as disks or tapes.
From the database point of view, there are three levels of backup:
• A full backup of the database, or dump of the database. This is a complete backup of the entire database. Normally performed overnight or on weekends and usually requires that no users be connected to the database. This type of backup will take the longest time and require ample storage.
• A differential backup of the database, in which only the last modifications done to the database (when compared with a previous full backup copy) are copied. The differential backup will back up only the data that has changed since the last full backup and that has not been backed up before. This type of backup can be done overnight (depending on the amount of data).
• A backup of the transaction log only - backs up all the transaction log operations that are not reflected in a previous backup copy of the database.