Backup vs. recovery - was: Increasing certifications on oracle database, could increase reliability on dbas

Dennis,

(Don't take this personal)
It goes a little further. Slide #17 'talks' backup. It also mentions 'Cold or Hot backup, which best fits your environment'. I prefer to 'talk' recovery. Recovery requirements are set by the business (as part/output of discussing the vulnerabilities with the business, good point!). Recovery requirements define the backup needed to fulfill them. So, the environment isn't defining what backup you like, the business is. A 'tested backup' is not enough, IMHO. A tested recovery is. I agree, this statement is getting close to hairsplitting. However, because of the importance of the right mindset regarding _recovery_ I think it's worth the hassle.

Cloning databases from backups can be good part of recovery rehearsal. However, these SARBOX days make it more and more difficult. Many times it is not allowed to make production data visible to developers and/or testers.

I'd include real recovery in the slide. You need to be sure the whole recovery chain is mastered by the people you rely on when disaster strikes.

If the title 'Recovery is job #1' is too offensive (I've never been at AA meetings) I'd suggest 'Recoverability is reponsability #1'

Best regards,

Carel-Jan Engel

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

On Tue, 2006-10-17 at 14:33 -0500, Dennis Williams wrote:
> Jared, Carel-Jan
>
> Thanks for the careful read. The unfortunate thing about Powerpoint
> slides is that to keep them interesting you trim out all the details.
> Yep, have long advocated testing backups. Unfortunately if you say
> "Recovery is job #1" it sounds like you are speaking at an AA meeting.
> - One point on the slide says "Don't trust an untested backup
> config.", which I used to describe the importance of recovery.
> - Slide #20 offers one good way to incorporate recovery testing:
> - "Clone test databases from a backup"
>
> Dennis Williams
>
> On 10/13/06, Carel-Jan Engel <cjpengel.dbalert_at_xs4all.nl> wrote:
>
> On Fri, 2006-10-13 at 12:48 -0700, Jared Still wrote:
>
> > Page 17: I somewhat disagree with this. Backups are very
> > important,
> > but there is something even more important. Do you remember
> > what
> > the name of RMAN means? ( are you with me Carel-Jan?)
>
> Jared, I'm here, with you!
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Carel-Jan Engel
>
> ===
> If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. (Derek
> Bok)
> ===

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