Re: Crazy mistake in "Oracle Unleashed"

On Mon, 28 Sep 1998, Anton Dischner wrote:
>
> i use:
>
> exp scott/tiger file=/dev/tape ... full=yes consistent=yes
>
> for my daily backups of a 7*24 data-base.

This means that in the event of loss of your database, you will have to recreate it from scratch, import all the data (have you projected how long this ill take?) and, worst of all, you will lose all transactions performed against the database since your last export. However, since you are able to use "CONSISTENT=YES" for the whole database, you must have a very low rate of transactions, or you would certainly encounter "ORA-1555: SNAPSHOT TOO OLD." Export really is not an effective backup tool for Oracle databases. Oracle7-style Hot backups, and Oracle8 RMAN server managed backups are the only viable ways to back up a 7x24 transactional database. They are the only solutions that allow continued full-service operation of the database during backups, and are capable of recovering the whole database in a consistent manner to a specified point in time.

With exports only, you are exposed to major data loss. If your database deals with financial transactions, it could be extremely messy.

Best of luck,
--
Jeremiah Wilton http://www.wolfenet.com/~jeremiah Received on Mon Sep 28 1998 - 10:19:45 CDT