You can run BACKUP in two ways:
Attended. In attended mode, BACKUP assumes that an operator is present, and prompts you to mount the archive media when necessary. With this method, you must run BACKUP interactively from the command line.
Unattended. In unattended mode, BACKUP assumes that no operator is present, and does not issue prompts. Instead, you must make appropriate estimates of the space required, and set up your devices accordingly. Any error is considered fatal.
In some cases, you can use third party software to create backups. Such products can be particularly useful for unattended backups. See “Unattended backup” for details if you want to run backups when no operator is present.
You can run BACKUP from a batch script
or procedure, as well as from Interactive SQL. You can also automate
backups using an event handler. For details, see Chapter 18, “Automating Tasks Using Schedules and Events.”
