Veritas Storage Foundation lets you create a clone database using snapshot volumes. You can use snapshots of a primary database to create a clone of the database at a given point in time. You can then implement decision-support analysis and report generation operations that take their data from the database clone rather than from the primary database to avoid introducing additional burdens on the production database.

A clone database can also serve as a valid back up of the primary database.

See Backing up the database from snapshot volumes (db2ed_vmclonedb).

You can also back up the primary database to tape using snapshot volumes.

The resynchronization functionality of Database FlashSnap allows you to quickly refresh the clone database with up-to-date information from the primary database. Reducing the time taken to update decision-support data also lets you generate analysis reports more frequently.