Archiving Temporal Tables - Teradata Database

The Archive/Recovery utility can be used to archive and restore all types of temporal tables. Archive operations on temporal tables use the same syntax as nontemporal tables. For temporal tables, the ARCHIVE, RESTORE, and COPY commands can operate on:

Entire temporal tables

Archiving an entire temporal table saves all rows to the archive, including history, current, future, open, and closed rows.

Specified partitions of a temporal table

An archive operation can be limited to specified partitions of row-partitioned temporal tables with primary indexes, provided those tables are not also column partitioned. For example, a bitemporal table that is partitioned using the recommended partitioning expression has rows separated into the following partitions:

open rows with valid-time periods that are current and future

open rows with valid-time periods that are history

closed rows

The archive can be limited to store only the current and history open rows from the first partition.

Use the following guidelines when archiving temporal tables that have been partitioned into current and history rows:

History rows are automatically formed in partitions containing current and future rows, and in partitions containing open rows when current, open rows are modified. The ALTER TABLE TO CURRENT statement repartitions the table, moving history rows out of the current partition.

If archiving the current and future rows, ensure the current partition includes only current and future rows by issuing an ALTER TABLE TO CURRENT statement on the table immediately prior to the ARCHIVE operation.

If restoring only current and future rows to an existing temporal table, issue an ALTER TABLE TO CURRENT statement on the table immediately prior to the restore operation.

Archive the complete partition that isolates the open current and future rows, or archive the entire table. Do not archive a history partition alone, or a subset of the partition for open current and future rows.

RESTORE the entire temporal archive. Never restore only a portion of the archive.

If only the current partition is restored for a temporal table, the existing history partition for that table is deleted, and a new history is begun starting from the time of the restore. This loses historical information from the existing table.

Teradata recommends a dual archive strategy for temporal tables. Save entire temporal tables in one archive, and the current temporal partitions in a separate archive. The archive containing entire tables can be used to restore temporal tables including history information. The archive containing current partitions can be used for disaster recovery, when restoring history rows is not desired.

For information on...	See...
Archive/Recovery Utility	Teradata Archive/Recovery Utility Reference
Partitioning temporal tables	“Row Partitioning ANSI System-Time Tables” on page 30 “Row Partitioning ANSI Valid-Time Tables” on page 53
ALTER TABLE TO CURRENT	“Row Partitioning ANSI System-Time Tables” on page 30 “Row Partitioning ANSI Valid-Time Tables” on page 53 SQL Data Definition Language