Re: How do you backup a live database?

Atif Ahmad Khan wrote:

> I have Oracle Workgroup Server 7.3.2.* running under Solaris X86
> 2.5.1.
> I have been given a 32GB DAT drive and asked to come up with a good
> backup solution. I am not much concerned about the system backups
> as it doesn't change much every day. However some tables in the
> database
> change every minute. Even if I were to export these tables and do an
> incremental backup, I cant possibly keep the backup up to date.
> There
> will be records lost if the drive were to crash in the middle.
>
> What is the best one can do without going the pricey and somewhat
> complex
> RAID route?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Atif Khan
> aak2_at_ra.msstate.edu

Well you wouldn't loose records if Oracle is installed correctly. As long as you mirror your redo-logs and control files on different disks (and Oracle can do this, you don't need any additional hardware or software mirroring) and run your database in 'archive log' mode (again, try to get the logs on their own disk) then you can recover the database from *most* forms of failure.

Only the loss of the entire machine (fire, bomb, quake - no, not the game! etc.) would result in some data loss. You can look at server-mirroring, clustering, distributed databases, standby databases, etc. to solve even these problems.

Look at the Oracle Backup and Recovery Handbook from Oracle Press and the Oracle docs for more info on how to install, configure and backup your Oracle system.

Steve Phelan. Received on Wed Jun 18 1997 - 00:00:00 CDT