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Taking your time when a crisis occurs

From: Hallas, John <HallasJ_at_logicae.com>
Date: Fri, 04 May 2001 03:08:37 -0700
Message-ID: <F001.002F9522.20010504010019@fatcity.com>

FOR YOUR INFORMATION ESIS and EPFAL are now part of Logica. The Internet email addresses of the staff has changed to the following - lastnameinitial_at_logica.com eg SMITHK_at_logica.com. Emails using the old format will continue to be delivered until 30th June 2001.

David,
I support what you say about taking your time entirely. In fact at any interviews I attend backup/recovery question(s)n are always asked. My standard answer is the at then first thing I will do is go for a cup of coffee. After their jaws have finished dropping I explain how thinking time is required etc.

On a similar theme a few years ago I was interviewing for a contract DBA and he made the statement along the lines of 'you are paying me more because I have made mistakes before and I have learnt from them so you will be safe with me'. ( I am sure he phrased it more eloquently than that). After the interview the senior manager at the interview said that he would not have anyone as self-obsessed and over-confident as that on board. I disagreed and said that what the contractor was offering was exactly what we wanted. We took him on and he fitted in very well. This story fits in with the concept of getting a coffee and thinking about things first, which is all about using your experience well.

John

Logica/ESIS Tel 0115 945 6643

                -----Original Message-----
                From:   David A. Barbour [mailto:dbarbour_at_nucentrix.net]
                Sent:   03 May 2001 18:46
                To:     Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
                Subject:        Re: Fwd: please help

                Jared,

                I think you hit the nail on the head when you said "Best
practice of
                course is to make a backup of your database in it's current
condition
                prior to restoring it."  

                Too many recoveries are failures because DBAs tend to forget
basics when
                confronted with the pressures from management, users, and
the
                constraints of time (primary key).  I made this mistake once
early on. 
                Now if I have a possible recovery scenario, the first thing
I do is take
                a deep breath, get a cup of coffee, and THINK about what I'm
going to do
                before I ever touch the keyboard.

                Absent all that, I still make a copy of the redo logs
whenever I do a
                backup.  Yeah, you could mess up and apply them
inadvertently, but
                hopefully you will have practiced recovery scenarios (see
"Training a
                DBA" by Kimberly Smith) and be comfortable with your tapes,
disks,
                commands, systems administrator, etc.  At least if you've
got them, and
                everything goes to h*%$ in a handbasket, you can always give
'them' back
                something.

                David A. Barbour


                Jared Still wrote:

>
> Dick,
>
> Backing up the redo logs can have some serious
consequences.
>
> Let's say you are restoring the database files, and a
number of
> archived logs to roll forward through.
>
> Following that, you are going to roll forward through all
archived logs
> that are still online, and then through your current redo
logs for a
> complete recovery.
>
> Restoring old redo logs would render this strategy
ineffective.
>
> Backing them up can be a good thing, but it would be very
easy
> to inadvertently wipe out the current ones when restoring
from tape.
>
> Best practice of course is to make a backup of your
database in
> it's current condition prior to restoring it.
>
> It would also be prudent to make copies of the redo logs
locally
> so you don't have to restore them from tape.
>
> Jared
>
> On Wednesday 02 May 2001 07:24, dgoulet_at_vicr.com wrote:
> > Jonathan,
> >
> > It would appear that your friend has hit upon one of
the problems of
> > hot backups that everyone misses and actually Oracle
recommends against.
> > That is backing up your online redo log files and doing
that LAST. The
> > reason is that there are more than likely active
transactions that were
> > recorded therein and those logs are not available. Can
he complete the
> > recovery, maybe if he has the remaining logs from the
active system, I'm
> > assuming he is recovering to somewhere other than his
production system.
> > Otherwise his only recourse is OTS.
> >
> > Dick Goulet
> > Oracle Certified 8i DBA
> >
> > ____________________Reply Separator____________________
> > Author: Jonathan Gennick <jonathan_at_gennick.com>
> > Date: 5/1/2001 8:55 PM
> >
> > Fellow list members, I received the following email from
a
> > reader a few minutes ago. If you skip down to where he
talks
> > about backup, you'll see that he's in trouble with a
> > database that won't recover. I've already suggested that
he
> > open a TAR, and that he supply more specifics as to
error
> > messages and the like, but maybe someone on this list
can
> > draw some conclusions from what he's told me so far. If
> > you're good at recovery, have a look at what he says.
I'll
> > post his email address later if he says its ok, and I'll
> > pass on any advice/suggestions I receive in the
meantime.
> --
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ:
http://www.orafaq.com
> --
> Author: Jared Still
> INET: jkstill_at_cybcon.com
>
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subscribing). -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: David A. Barbour INET: dbarbour_at_nucentrix.net Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists -------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like
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-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
-- 
Author: Hallas, John
  INET: HallasJ_at_logicae.com

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Received on Fri May 04 2001 - 05:08:37 CDT

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