> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.kinetica.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# /admin/backup/begin

```
URL: http://<db.host>:<db.port>/admin/backup/begin
```

Prepares the system for a backup by closing all open file handles after
allowing current active jobs to complete. When the database is in backup mode,
queries that result in a disk write operation will be blocked until backup mode
has been completed by using
[/admin/backup/end](/content/api/rest/admin_backup_end_rest).

## Input Parameter Description

<ParamField body="options" type="map of string to strings">
  Optional parameters.

  The default value is an empty map ( \{} ).
</ParamField>

## Output Parameter Description

The Kinetica server embeds the endpoint response inside a standard response structure which contains status information and the actual response to the query.  Here is a description of the various fields of the wrapper:

<ResponseField name="status" type="String">
  'OK' or 'ERROR'
</ResponseField>

<ResponseField name="message" type="String">
  Empty if success or an error message
</ResponseField>

<ResponseField name="data_type" type="String">
  'admin\_backup\_begin\_response' or 'none' in case of an error
</ResponseField>

<ResponseField name="data" type="String">
  Empty string
</ResponseField>

<ResponseField name="data_str" type="JSON or String">
  This embedded JSON represents the result of the /admin/backup/begin endpoint:

  <Expandable title="data_str">
    <ResponseField name="info" type="map of string to strings">
      Additional information.
    </ResponseField>
  </Expandable>

  Empty string in case of an error.
</ResponseField>