8.1 Cloning a database There are certain situations during an application's life when you might want to take a copy of a database for analysis purposes without disturbing the original database. You can clone a database using various DB2 tools, such as db2look. However, DB2 Recovery Expert (DB2 RE) makes it easier to transfer the most up-to-date version of the data without impacting the availability of the data. DB2 RE calls the native DB2 restore command to run the database cloning process, so you may find this easier using DB2 RE rather than native DB2 commands or the DB2 Control Center. However for cloning at a more granular level, tables or table spaces, DB2 RE enables you to extract tables to a previous point-in-time. Note: DB2 RE uses standard DB2 processes to clone a database by calling DB2 to run a database restore or redirected restore. DB2 RE does not use object translation for cloning a database. This cloning process is best described using a scenario. This section discusses in detail a scenario that clones a database.