The recommended method of recovering an inconsistent database is to use the Restore operation in Actian Director or rollforwarddb operation in VDBA. You can also enter the rollforwarddb command from the command line.

If no Ingres checkpoint exists, you can recover from an operating system backup.

The recommended way to make your inconsistent database consistent is to use rollforwarddb. It recovers the database from a previous checkpoint and, if journaling was enabled, applies the associated journals. For the full procedure, see the Database Administrator Guide.

We do not support nor recommend the use of operating system backups as your primary means of ensuring database recoverability. The Ingres checkpoint and journaling programs provide the secure way to ensure that your data is recoverable.

If you have an inconsistent database for which no checkpoints or operating system backups exist, you can still gain access to that database and attempt to salvage the data using the verifydb utility.

The verifydb utility can be used to unset the “inconsistent database” flag in the configuration file “aaaaaaaa.cnf”. This permits access to the database; however, it does nothing to actually make the data consistent. If verifydb is used to force access to a database that is inconsistent, the state of the database remains unknown. Such a database becomes unsupportable by technical support. Data can be lost and problems occur weeks or months later. Technical support cannot diagnose the state of such a database because the built-in consistency checks have been overridden.

The format “verifydb -oforce_consistent” does not recover a database. It merely allows access and continued operation to a database that is in an inconsistent state.

If you must use verifydb to gain emergency access to data in an inconsistent database, do so as follows: