How the onunload and onload utilities work

The onunload utility, which unloads data from a database, writes a database or table into a file on tape or disk. The onload utility loads data that was created with the onunload command into the database server.

The onunload utility unloads the data in binary form in disk-page units, making this utility more efficient than dbexport.

You can use the onunload utility to move data between computers that have the same version of the database server.
Important: You cannot use the onload and onunload utilities to move data from one version of a database server to another or between different types of database servers. In addition, the onload command must have the same scope as the corresponding onunload command that unloaded the same table or tables that onload references. You cannot, for example, use onunload to unload an entire database, and then use onload to load only a subset of the tables from that database.

The onload utility creates a database or table in a specified dbspace. The onload utility then loads it with data from an input tape or disk file that the onunload utility creates.

During the load, you can move simple large objects that are stored in a blobspace to another blobspace.