How to restore a Pervasive Db backup?

Question

I need to ask one of our customers for a db backup of their Pervasive DB. I went through the online material available in this area and surprisingly, there is very little information available. Appreciate any help in this area.

Mainly I have two questions.

1) What are the types of files I should request from the customer, as the backup files? Because, they have sent me two files (these files do not have any file extension) and I could not figure out what the file types are nor how to restore them. I tried renaming them as .DDF, but no luck.

2) After getting the files from them, how do I restore the db? As far as I understand, I can paste these files to a location in Pervasive DB installation folder and then the server should be identifying the database.

Thank you.

mirtheil · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-06T18:10:36.893

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The easiest way to back up a Pervasive database is to stop the engine (or at least make sure everyone has closed any Pervasive data files) and copy the files in the data directory to another location. The files to be copied are all of the files in the data directory and dictionary location in the Pervasive Database entry.

Pervasive data files can have any (or no) extension. I've seen MKD, BTR, DAT, DBF, DB, and even no extension although that is rare.

Restoring the database is just as simple. Take the copies of the Dictionary files (*.DDF) and the the Data files (from the data directory), put them on the new machine with the a version of the Pervasive engine greater than or equal to the original version and create a new Pervasive Database entry pointing to the new directories.

Each database is potentially different so you'd want to check your database for the locations.
The Database properties in the Pervasive Control Center will show the Database properties will show the Dictionary Location and the Data Directory:

edited Jun 06 '19 at 18:10

answered Jun 05 '19 at 17:48

mirtheil

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Yep. Our "backup" process has always been a simple ZIP operation. Restore is just to unzip it, and create a new DB entry that points to the new folder. – DonBoitnott Jun 06 '19 at 14:46
@mirtheil Can you please give sample paths to data directory and dictionary location? – Thilok Gunawardena Jun 06 '19 at 17:15
@DonBoitnott How can I add a new DB entry? – Thilok Gunawardena Jun 06 '19 at 17:17
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We used the Btrive API, such as by calling `PvCreateDatabase` – DonBoitnott Jun 06 '19 at 18:05
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`PvCreateDatabase` is part of the Distributed Tuning Interface. There is also a Distributed Tuning Object that is a COM object. You can also create the database using the Pervasive Control Center if you want a more manual process. – mirtheil Jun 06 '19 at 18:07

How to restore a Pervasive Db backup?

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