Like RDBMS, OrientDB also supports the backup and restore operations. While executing the backup operation, it will take all files of the current database into a compressed zip format using the ZIP algorithm. This feature (Backup) can be availed automatically by enabling the Automatic-Backup server plugin.

Taking backup of a database or exporting a database is the same, however, based on the procedure we have to know when to use backup and when to use export.

While taking backup, it will create a consistent copy of a database, all further write operations are locked and waiting to finish the backup process. In this operation, it will create a read-only backup file.

If you need the concurrent read and write operation while taking a backup you have to choose exporting a database instead of taking backup of a database. Export doesn’t lock the database and allows concurrent writes during the export process.

The following statement is the basic syntax of database backup.

./backup.sh <dburl> <user> <password> <destination> [<type>]

Following are the details about the options in the above syntax.

<dburl> − The database URL where the database is located either in the local or in the remote location.

<user> − Specifies the username to run the backup.

<password> − Provides the password for the particular user.

<destination> − Destination file location stating where to store the backup zip file.

<type> − Optional backup type. It has either of the two options.

• Default − locks the database during the backup.

• LVM − uses LVM copy-on-write snapshot in background.

Example

Take a backup of the database demo which is located in the local file system /opt/orientdb/databases/demo into a file named sample-demo.zip and located into the current directory.

You can use the following command to take a backup of the database demo.

$ backup.sh plocal: opt/orientdb/database/demo admin admin ./backup-demo.zip

Using Console

The same you can do using the OrientDB console. Before taking the backup of a particular database, you have to first connect to the database. You can use the following command to connect to the database named demo.

orientdb> CONNECT PLOCAL:/opt/orientdb/databases/demo admin admin

After connecting you can use the following command to take backup of the database into a file named ‘backup-demo.zip’ in the current directory.

orientdb {db=demo}> BACKUP DATABASE ./backup-demo.zip

If this command is executed successfully, you will get some success notifications along with following message.

Backup executed in 0.30 seconds

Database is a one of the important data models with different attributes that you can modify as per your requirements.

The following statement is the basic syntax of the Alter Database command.

ALTER DATABASE <attribute-name> <attribute-value>

Where <attribute-name> defines the attribute that you want to modify and <attribute-value> defines the value you want to set for that attribute.

The following table defines the list of supported attributes for altering a database.

Example

From the version of OrientDB-2.2, the new SQL parser is added which will not allow the regular syntax in some cases. Therefore, we have to disable the new SQL parser (StrictSQL) in some cases. You can use the following Alter database command to disable the StrictSQL parser.

orientdb> ALTER DATABASE custom strictSQL = false

If the command is executed successfully, you will get the following output.

Database updated successfully

As like RDBMS, OrientDB also supports restoring operation. Only from the console mode, you can execute this operation successfully.

The following statement is the basic syntax for restoring operation.

orientdb> RESTORE DATABSE <url of the backup zip file>

Example

You have to perform this operation only from the console mode. Therefore, first you have to start the OrientDB console using the following OrientDB command.

$ orientdb

Then, connect to the respective database to restore the backup. You can use the following command to connect to the database named demo.

orientdb> CONNECT PLOCAL:/opt/orientdb/databases/demo admin admin

After successful connection, you can use the following command to restore the backup from ‘backup-demo.zip’ file. Before executing, make sure the backup-demo.zip file is placed in the current directory.

Orientdb {db = demo}> RESTORE DATABASE backup-demo.zip

If this command is executed successfully, you will get some success notifications along with the following message.

Database restored in 0.26 seconds

The SQL Reference of the OrientDB database provides several commands to create, alter, and drop databases.

The following statement is a basic syntax of Create Database command.

CREATE DATABASE <database-url> [<user> <password> <storage-type> [<db-type>]]

Following are the details about the options in the above syntax.

<database-url> − Defines the URL of the database. URL contains two parts, one is <mode> and the second one is <path>.

<mode> − Defines the mode, i.e. local mode or remote mode.

<path> − Defines the path to the database.

<user> − Defines the user you want to connect to the database.

<password> − Defines the password for connecting to the database.

<storage-type> − Defines the storage types. You can choose between PLOCAL and MEMORY.

Example

You can use the following command to create a local database named demo.

Orientdb> CREATE DATABASE PLOCAL:/opt/orientdb/databses/demo

If the database is successfully created, you will get the following output.

Database created successfully.
Current database is: plocal: /opt/orientdb/databases/demo

orientdb {db = demo}>