Introduction

This chapter describes common database management operations such as creating database files, modifying database characteristics, database backup and restore, routine integrity checks, extracting or loading data, and optimizing performance.

GT.M uses M Peripheral Interchange Program (MUPIP) for GT.M database management, database journaling, and logical multisite replication (LMS). This chapter summarizes the MUPIP commands pertaining to GT.M database management and serves as a foundation for more advanced GT.M functionality described for Journaling and LMS.

For MUPIP commands pertaining to database journaling, refer to ChapterA 6: a??GT.M Journalinga??.

For MUPIP commands pertaining to multisite database replication, refer to ChapterA 7: a??Database Replicationa??.

[Note]Note

Two MUPIP operations - INTRPT and STOP - perform process management functions. All other MUPIP operations relate to the operation of the database.

The GT.M installation procedure places the MUPIP utility program in a directory specified by $gtm_dist.

Invoke MUPIP by executing the mupip program at the shell prompt. If this does not work, consult your system manager (MUPIP requires that the $gtm_dist point to the directory containing the MUPIP executable image).

$gtm_dist/mupip
MUPIP>

MUPIP asks for commands, with the MUPIP> prompt. Enter the EXIT command at the MUPIP> prompt to stop the utility. MUPIP performs one operation at a time, and automatically terminates after most operations.

When additional information appears on the command line after the mupip program name, MUPIP processes the additional information as its command, for example:

$gtm_dist/mupip stop 1158

This starts MUPIP and stops the process with Process ID (PID) 1158.

Some MUPIP commands require information contained in the global directory. Therefore, a process must have access to a valid global directory before using any MUPIP commands other than EXIT, INTRPT, JOURNAL, RESTORE, STOP and the -file option of any command that has that option.

The environment variable gtmgbldir specifies the active global directory.

A gtmgbldir value of mumps.gld tells MUPIP to look for a global directory file mumps.gld in the current directory. For more information on the global directory, refer to a??Global Directory Editora??.

[Important]Important

FIS recommends against running GT.M components as root. When run as root, GT.M components use the owner and group of the database file as the owner and group of newly created journal files, backup files, snapshot files, shared memory, and semaphores. In addition, they set the permissions on the resulting files, shared memory, and semaphores, as if running as the owner of the database file and as a member of the database file group.

[Note]Note

You can perform read operations on a GT.M database residing on a read-only mounted filesystem. However, please note:

  • The filesystem must remain read-only for the duration of any process that opens a database file resident on it. If a read-only file system is switched to read-write while GT.M processes have database files open on it, and other processes update those databases, the read-only processes are likely to read incorrect or corrupt data.

  • When the filesystem is read-only the shared memory resources which are typically shared among multiple processes instead become private to each process, so memory resource use increases with each additional concurrent process.

  • M locks mapped to regions that map to database files on read-only filesystems are visible only to the process that owns the locks, and are invisible to other processes.

While most MUPIP operations can be performed when GT.M processes are actively accessing database files, some operations require stand-alone access. When using standalone access, no other process can access the database file(s). When using concurrent access, other processes can read or update the database file(s) while MUPIP accesses them. A few operations permit concurrent access to read database files, but not to update them. All MUPIP operations can be performed with stand-alone access - there is never a requirement for another process to be accessing database files when MUPIP operates on them.

For information on the MUPIP commands and/or qualifiers that require standalone access, refer to a??MUPIP Command Summarya??.

The general format of MUPIP commands is:

mupip command [-qualifier[...]] [object[,...]] [destination]

MUPIP allows the abbreviation of commands and qualifiers. In each section describing a command or qualifier, the abbreviation is also shown (for example, B[ACKUP]). The abbreviated version of the command you can use on the command line is B. To avoid future compatibility problems and improve the readability, specify at least four characters when using MUPIP commands in scripts.

Although you can enter commands in both upper and lower case (the mupip program name itself must be in lower case on UNIX/Linux), the typographical convention used in this chapter is all small letters for commands. Another convention is in the presentation of command syntax. If the full format of the command is too long for a single line of print, the presentation wraps around into additional lines. 

$ mupip backup -bytestream -transaction=1 accounts,history,tables,miscellaneous /var/production/backup/

When you enter a MUPIP command, one of its variable arguments is the region-list. region-list identify the target of the command and may include the UNIX wildcards "?" and "*". Region-lists containing UNIX wildcard characters must always be quoted, for example, "*" to prevent inappropriate expansion by the UNIX shell. Similarly, for file and directory names you might want to avoid non-graphic characters and most punctuations except underbars (_), not because of GT.M conventions but because of inappropriate expansion by UNIX shells.

MUPIP qualifier values are restricted only by the maximum size of the command input line, which is 4KB on some systems and upto 64KB on others.

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