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RE: Methods to Create Smaller Test DB from Production?

From: Carel-Jan Engel <cjpengel.dbalert_at_xs4all.nl>
Date: Mon, 01 Mar 2004 21:34:50 +0000
Message-Id: <6.0.1.1.0.20040301212633.43509010@pop.xs4all.nl>


The tool exists, it's called DataBee. A year ago I've written a review (alas it's in dutch) about it, and had the chance to evaluate the product with an evaluation licence. When you go through this, you'll see how easy it is to underestimate the effort to do it yourself.

At least for Acceptance and most desirable for System tests I agree that there should be enough diskspace for a full copy. But for developers it's very nice to have the ability to create small, _consistent_ subsets of data, and to recreate them as often as you like. Read the doc's that come with DataBee, I guess they are still downloadable. For what my opinion is worth, I was impressed by the tool,

Regards, Carel-Jan

===
If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. (Derek Bok) ===

At 07:47 PM 3/1/2004, you wrote:
>David,
>
>Boy, this would be a great tool if it existed.
>
>I think the only way out for you is to roll-your-own. You could easily
>identify code tables (look-up tables) and export all of that data. But
>the relational data (like your main parent table and all of the subsequent
>children records) you will probably need to move by hand - or by writing a
>program to select, say, 10,000 master records and all of the subsequent
>child records. It's not an easy task, but once you've done it, it is in
>the can - but subject to updates when new tables and relationships come along.
>
>Good Luck!
>
>
>Tom Mercadante
>Oracle Certified Professional
>-----Original Message-----
>From: David Wagoner [mailto:dwagoner_at_arsenaldigital.com]
>Sent: Monday, March 01, 2004 2:20 PM
>To: 'oracle-l_at_freelists.org'
>Subject: RE: Methods to Create Smaller Test DB from Production?
>
>So, Dennis, do you always have enough disk space on your test/dev servers
>to hold an entire copy of Production? For sites with VLDB, this is not
>possible.
>
>(I agree that testing your backups is critical, and this is one method to
>do that- if you have enough disk space in Test.)
>
>Best regards,
>
>David B. Wagoner
>Database Administrator
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: DENNIS WILLIAMS
>[<mailto:DWILLIAMS_at_LIFETOUCH.COM>mailto:DWILLIAMS_at_LIFETOUCH.COM]
>Sent: Monday, March 01, 2004 2:12 PM
>To: 'oracle-l_at_freelists.org'
>Subject: RE: Methods to Create Smaller Test DB from Production?
>
>David - I disagree. I feel that your energy is better expended in creating
>test databases by recovering your production backup. You do test your
>backups, don't you? When we have created subset databases, the testing often
>failed to reveal problems, or the users would become frustrated with missing
>data. Just my 2 cents worth.
>
>
>Dennis Williams
>DBA
>Lifetouch, Inc.
>dwilliams_at_lifetouch.com
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org
>[<mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org>mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org]On
>Behalf Of David Wagoner
>Sent: Monday, March 01, 2004 1:06 PM
>To: 'oracle-l_at_freelists.org'
>Subject: RE: Methods to Create Smaller Test DB from Production?
>
>Juan,
>
>Unfortunately, that solution requires that you have enough disk space to
>hold an entire copy of production, not to mention the archive logs that will
>be generated by deleting data.
>
>I'm looking for clever solutions to this problem. I suppose writing your
>own referentially-correct ETL from Production to Test is one way. That's
>sort of what the DataBee product does, I think. Subsetting a production DB
>for test would be an excellent new feature for 10g!
>
>
>Best regards,
>
>David B. Wagoner
>Database Administrator
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Juan Cachito Reyes Pacheco
>[<mailto:jreyes_at_dazasoftware.com>mailto:jreyes_at_dazasoftware.com]
>Sent: Monday, March 01, 2004 1:44 PM
>To: oracle-l_at_freelists.org
>Subject: Re: Methods to Create Smaller Test DB from Production?
>
>
>You can copy the production database, the optimal
>You can delete records, and make this faster, and export import statistics
>to get performance test more accurate to reality.
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: David Wagoner
><<mailto:dwagoner_at_arsenaldigital.com>mailto:dwagoner_at_arsenaldigital.com>
>To:
>ORACLE-L <<mailto:oracle-l_at_freelists.org>mailto:oracle-l_at_freelists.org>
>(E-mail)
>Sent: Monday, March 01, 2004 2:37 PM
>Subject: Methods to Create Smaller Test DB from Production?
>
>I know many of you have addressed this same issue...
>
>What is a good method to create a smaller test database from Production?
>
>I've read about the commercial product called DataBee for doing this, but
>what other methods are you guys using? With all of the expertise in this
>list, there are bound to be some interesting solutions.
>
>Best regards,
>
>David B. Wagoner
>Database Administrator
>
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Received on Mon Mar 01 2004 - 15:32:10 CST

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