If not using the binary dump option (-b), then the dumpxCATdb command creates .csv files for xCAT database tables and puts them in the directory given by the -p flag. These files can be used by the restorexCATdb command to restore the database. The command will read the list of tables in the site.skiptables attribute and not backup those tables.
The command will never backup TEAL or ISNM tables, except isnm_config. To dump TEAL tables use the documented process for TEAL. For ISNM use tabdump, after using tabprune to get to prune unnecessary records.
B<-b> This flag is only used for the DB2 database. The routine will use the DB2 backup utilities to create a binary backup of the entire DB2 database. Note to use this backup, you will have first had to modify the logging of the database and have taken an offline initial backup. Refer to the xCAT DB2 documentation for more instructions.