Re: Oracle/Sybase

Kevin Walker <kevinwalker_at_home.com> wrote in message news:groU2.4869$h72.1346_at_news.rdc1.md.home.com...
>
> * Sybase can backup an entire database while it is on-line. It is not
the
> fastest backup, mind
> you, but it can definitely be done. Oracle CAN NOT backup the entire
> database on-line.
>

While this may be true for native built-in functions (no third party apps involved), there are significant non-oracle applications which can allow you to do just that. I think someone already mentioned legato, and at the other extreme are products from EMC which can shorten the time it takes to back up even vldb's to minutes without shutting down the instance.

On the other hand, Sybase does offer a very powerful and robust backup solution right out of the box, allowing you to stripe a backup across multiple tape drives or even to disk, and as pointed out can be run while under full load (although you do take a performance hit, it's not as bad as you would think).

Also, sybase doesn't really use the term tablespace, but rather deals with databases (essentially a self contained schema with tables, indexes, users, groups, etc) within a server. Each database can be backed up or restored independently. I'm not sure how closely a tablespace relates to a sybase database beyond that though.

And lastly, Sybase's last great stronghold is indeed in the financial sector, thanks to it being the first (I think, don't shoot me if if it wasn't) vendor to offer the concepts of stored procedures and conditionally triggered application events (essentially allowing programmed trades).

/greg Received on Mon Apr 26 1999 - 14:06:48 CDT