Re: Copy/Backup time limits (was Big Whoops response)

From: Robert Eskridge <bryny_at_dfweahs.net>
Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 16:53:24 -0500
Message-Id: <10508.106783@fatcity.com>

Your storage selection can make a big difference in this process. The EMC reps tout doing a three way mirror, breaking the mirror to do tape backups and clones off of the static version and then re-silvering. Thus the production database is only offline long enough for the break to occur. We use Network Appliance filers here, where a snapshot accomplishes the same thing in a few seconds.

Another way of accomplishing this is to make your clones off of a standby database.

This cat can be skinned all sorts of ways.

S> I'm not in your boots, but this is just a thought:

S> Could you do the copy first, and create a backup from that copy ?

S> shutdown
S> copy
S> startup
S> send copy to tape
S> send copy to where it belongs as a new database

S> If you test your copy frequently (don't forget to check for MISSING files in

S> alert), and you're running archivelog, and you take care of your archived S> log files, maybe you could survive a lost datafile.

S> (I work a similar battle: we do full export then backup then copy every
S> night. I would like to do something less dramatic nightly and do the full
S> set on weekends.  When the downtime's too bad we'll adjust.)

S> -----Original Message-----

S> Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2000 4:06 PM
S> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

S> Question for everyone.  We frequently do cold database copies from
S> production to test, qual, etc...  We have 5 hour window.  If I took a backup
S> (3 hours) before I did the copy, there would not be enough time remaining to
S> do the copy.  Yet if I make a mistake on the copy scripts I could easily
S> lose a datafile.  The question is, do I demand time to do it right and make
S> a backup before I start or do I continue taking the chance that I won't make
S> a mistake?

S> Ron Smith
S> Database Administration Received on Thu May 25 2000 - 16:53:24 CDT