What is the difference between the db and ds prefix folders of a relational data store?

Answer

In ArcGIS Store, a relational data store stores all hosted feature layer data of an organization, including the output layers created when running the standard feature analysis tools in Portal for ArcGIS Map Viewer Classic or ArcGIS Pro.

When creating a relational data store, a backup location is automatically configured on the same machine the data store is created. By default, a backup folder, dbbackup, is created, and it contains two prefix folders, 'db' and 'ds', as shown in the image below.

The backup file in the db and ds prefix folders displays the backup details used in ArcGIS Data Store. The differences between the backup files can be observed based on three parameters: 'backupmode', 'backupType', and 'backupfiles'.

The db prefix folder

The db prefix folder is automatically created from the scheduled and manual backups when creating a relational data store in ArcGIS Data Store.

When viewing the scheduled or manual backup file, the value of the backupmode parameter is 'scheduled' or 'manual' while the value of the backupType parameter is 'Export'. The db prefix folder is created for the pg_dump backup, thus the backupfiles parameter is not available. The image below demonstrates the parameters included in a scheduled and manual backup file.

In a scheduled backup file:

In a manual backup file:

The ds prefix folder

The ds prefix folder is created when the point-in-time recovery is enabled and by default, the point-in-time recovery is not enabled in ArcGIS Data Store.

When viewing the point-in-time recovery backup file, the value of the backupmode parameter is 'internal' while the value of the backupType parameter is 'BaseBackup'. The backupfiles parameter for the point-in-time recovery backup file is available as the ds prefix folder is created for the pg_based backup. The image below shows the parameters in the point-in-time recovery backup file.