Oracle8i Cloning databases by copying tablespaces

From: Anthony Keller <akeller_at_sctcorp.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2000 12:22:31 -0400
Message-Id: <10515.107410@fatcity.com>

Hi,

I've been reading the documentation on copying tablespaces in Oracle8i. In the past I've always cloned a database by copying datafiles and recreating the control files. In Oracle8 databases this may cause a problem due to the database identifiers and RMAN backup and recovery procedures.

So, I thought I would look into the Oracle8i documentation for copying tablespaces. It says to do the following:

Make the tablespace read only.
Copy the datafiles
Export the metadata.
Import the metadata.
If the tablespace was not read only, return it to its previous state.

My question is, has anybody really done this yet? If so, how does this compare with the previous way of cloning a database? Sounds more complicated, but is it really? And how much time does it take? Can you make a script to do the entire thing if you have to do the cloning operation many times, e.g., recreate a test database from the production database?

Other questions - the documentation says nothing about views and packages? Are these carried across in the export?

Does the DATAFILE parameter on the import allow you to change the name of the datafile for a tablespace? What is the syntax for multiple datafiles for one tablespace?

Thanks,
Tony

Anthony M. Keller
Technical Manager
International Area akeller_at_sctcorp.com Global Education Solutions
Sytems & Computer Technology
4 Country View Road
Malvern, PA 19355
United States of America

Received on Thu Jun 01 2000 - 11:22:31 CDT