backing up: slapcat vs. ldapsearch vs. db_checkpoint

[Micah Anderson <micah@riseup.net>]

We used to have a back-ldbm backend, so we were nightly doing a
ldapsearch like the following to backup our data into an ldif format
that we could then import via slapadd (we have tested it, and it works):

ldapsearch -x -LLL -z 0 -D "$dn" -w "$pass" -b "$basedn" '*' > \
"$backupdir/ldap.ldif" 

Now that we have converted to back-dbd I see that we have some
additional options for backing up our data before us and I am trying
to evaluate if we should be changing what we are doing to achieve
greater speed, higher redundancy or more reliable data backups.

What we are doing now with ldapsearch works, and when using back-ldbm
was the only option without taking slapd down. But now that we have
back-dbd we can do a slapcat, but I am not sure I know why we would
need to when ldapsearch works. Same question goes for using the
sleepycat backup methods, are there advantages that make backing
things up this way desirable? What are the advantages/disadvantages to
using db_checkpoint (and then backing up the latest logfile) over
using slapcat over ldapsearch?

In the FAQ-O-Matic I see how you can do each, but I have not found a
comparision of why you might do each, I will summarize people's
responses to this and add it to the FAQ.

micah