Snapshots are most commonly used as a source for backing up a database. The advantage of using snapshot volumes is that the backup will not contest the I/O bandwidth of the physical devices. Making the snapshot volumes available on a secondary host will eliminate the extra loads put on processors and I/O adapters by the backup process on the primary host.
A clone database can also serve as a valid backup of the primary database. You can back up the primary datafiles to tape using snapshot volumes. You can also use the DB2 Backup utility to backup a snapshot database if all the tablespaces are DMS type.
Figure: Example system configuration for database backup on the primary host shows a typical configuration when snapshot volumes are located on the primary host.
Figure: Example system configuration for database backup on a secondary host shows a typical configuration when snapshot volumes are used on a secondary host.
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