Backup and recovery

The Perforce service stores two kinds of data: versioned files and metadata.

• Versioned files are files submitted by Helix server users. Versioned files are stored in directory trees called depots.

  There is one subdirectory under the server’s root directory for each depot in your Helix server installation. The versioned files for a given depot are stored in a tree of directories beneath this subdirectory.

• Database files store metadata, including changelists, opened files, client workspace specifications, branch mappings, and other data concerning the history and present state of the versioned files.

  Database files appear as db.* files in the top level of the server root directory. Each db.* file contains a single, binary-encoded database table.

This chapter describes the commands and processes you use to back up and recover your Helix Core server. For information about multi-server backup and recovery, see the Backing up and upgrading services section under Deployment architecture.