Re: Backup Tools

Lynne Nyhan <lnyhan_at_bidmc.harvard.edu> wrote:

>I am looking for any information regarding backup tools that any of
>you would recommend. We are using SQLBackTrack for Oracle.
 

>Our system currently runs on HP-UX, 10.01 with Oracle 7.1.6.2 and we use
>this tool for nightly cold backups. We are having problems with it and
>would like to hear from other DBA's using this tool as part of their
>backup strategy.
 

>If you don't use this specific tool, what are you using?
>Would you recommend anything different?
 

>Thank you in advance for your expertise and opinions!
 

>Lynne Nyhan
>lnyhan_at_bidmc.harvard.edu

We are using SQL BackTrack here on several applications, Oracle V7.1.3-V7.3.2. We run all backups to disk pools and our biggest problem has been running out of space. We usually run parallel backup streams and the product doesn't have the smarts to tell when one pool is nearing capacity but another pool is available to continue receiving writes.

One of my coworkers wrote a script to wrap around the SQL BackTrack job that does the backup of the archived log files. This script looks to see which backup pool has the most space and assigns that pool to recieve the archive log backups. Because we backup archive logs several times during a 24hr period, this helps us to keep the space usage balanced.

Another problem we've had (infrequently and only on older versions of Oracle) is a hang during the database shutdown. The tool will issue a shutdown abort if there is a hang but then it doesn't run the backup (shouldn't after a shutdown abort, of course) nor does it try to bring the database back up. So we've written ANOTHER script to verify whether or not the backup was successful andthat the database is up after the SQL BackTrack process is over.

On the good side, their support people have been very responsive and have even extended their office hours to accommodate those of us on Eastern time. Also, the product continues to improve as they release new versions.

Mary Travis
BellSouth Telecommunications
email: Mary.B.Travis_at_bridge.bellsouth.com Received on Sat May 31 1997 - 00:00:00 CDT