RE: Should we say COLD or HOT backup OR ARCHIVELOG or NOARCHIVELO

But my concern is this. Say a DBA has been doing cold, noarchivelog mode, backups for a year. Then, he gets this great idea (or direction) to put the database in archivelog mode, but to still do cold (or offline) backups, so all he changes in his backup/recovery strategy is the backup of the archived redo logs, not
realizing that there are some other considerations.

He reads a book or two, and because they call them hot/cold or online/offline, he figures that his backup really is the same and that he just needs to also backup the archived redo logs (thus, he continues to backup the online redo and control files). Now, he has a crash. Because of his mistaken ideas (with no help from what he has read really), he recovers the control file and online redo logs as he would have for a regular cold backup.... bad news, no? I'm just... concerned, that the term is not technically correct and could lead to issues. I guess this is an educational issue that I'm thinking of, less of a practical issue for senior DBA's who clearly understand the implications of archivelog vs. noarchivelog.

RF

Robert G. Freeman - Oracle8i OCP
Oracle DBA Technical Lead
CSX Midtier Database Administration

The Cigarette Smoking Man: Anyone who can appease a man's conscience can take his freedom away from him.

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Monday, March 18, 2002 12:50 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L NOARCHIVELOG mo

Hi Robert,

Oracle University training uses the terms online and offline and points out that online backups can only be made to databases that are in archivelog mode. Offline backups can be made to either archivelog or noarchivelog databases.

John

Robert_Freeman_at_csx.com wrote:

>Ok.... maybe you will think this is a silly thread, but I've wondered
>about this before...
>
>We (DBA's) use the terms hot and cold backups all the time. I wonder
though,
>when we talk about cold backups if the terminology should not include the
>mode of the backup:
>
>cold archivelog mode backup
>cold noarchivelog mode backup
>
>When we say "cold" backup, do we just assume it's NOARCHIVELOG mode...and
>enjoy the fact that we don't have to type or say as much...or should we be
>more specific to help the junior DBA's (or perhaps even those out there who
>have never really considered that there is a distinction between the two)
>out there? When books are written, I notice that they mostly just talk
about
>hot and cold backups, assuming that the cold backup is in NOARCHIVELOG
>mode...
>
>what about the junior DBA who does a cold backup in ARCHIVELOG mode and
>follows the standard cold backup procedure (backing up control files and
>redo logs) assuming that he can just recover them....(granted, anyone
should
>test
>their backup and recovery strategy, but this is a Jr. DBA!)
>
>Just thinking aloud... is it a silly question?
>
>Robert G. Freeman - Oracle8i OCP
>Oracle DBA Technical Lead
>CSX Midtier Database Administration
>
>The Cigarette Smoking Man: Anyone who can appease a man's conscience can
>take his freedom away from him.
>
>

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