Directed backup for massively parallel processing databases

A computer system for creating a backup of a database on a first massively parallel processing (MPP) computer system to restore to a second MPP computer system, the computer system comprising one or more processors, one or more computer readable memories, one or more computer readable tangible storage medium, and program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more storage medium for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more memories, the program instructions comprising:

• program instructions to receive, by the first MPP computer system, identification of data to back up and node server configuration information for the second MPP computer system, wherein the node server configuration information includes how the data is partitioned among the node servers of the second MPP computer system, and wherein each of the first and second MPP computer systems includes its own database storage media segmented into storage segments, and a plurality of node servers, each node server configured to manage a respective storage segment and a subset of the database stored on its respective storage segment, and wherein partitioning of the database among the node servers of the first MPP computer system is different than the partitioning of the database among the node servers of the second MPP computer system;
• and
• program instructions to create, by the first MPP computer system, a backup of the identified data from the plurality of node servers of the first MPP computer system in accordance with the node server configuration information of the second MPP computer system, such that the backed up data is partitioned in accordance with the partitioning of the data among the node servers of the second MPP computer system and does not require a re-partitioning by the second MPP computer system for a restore of the data to the second MPP computer system.