Choosing backup strategy on NT

We are setting up an Oracle db on Win NT 4.0, size 6-8 Gb, 60 users, using Oracle Workgroup Server 7.3 (optionally Oracle 8.0). It will actually be two databases, the first is going to serve a 24-hour production process, and the second (on a separate server) will contain historical data for reporting and statistics.

We were originally thinking of using a hot backup on NT, but now we hear rumours that this is not working reliably. And also that the recovery cannot be run unattended. (Which we will have to do in order to transport the realtime process data from the first server to the history database on the second). We have not made practical tests ourselves yet, except for verifying the time needed for a cold backup (11 minutes for 8 Gb). A cold backup will give us problems - the db should be available continuously.

We have looked into other options, and are having a meeting with Oracle tomorrow to investigate the different options together. (Hot backup, Cold backup, Export, Read-only snapshots to second server - backup from there, Standby database - ditto, Partitioning tables - a work-around in programming/usage, and so on).

Is there anyone out there who has experiences good or bad with hot backup under NT with a similarly sized db? Or who have made similar evaluations of backup strategy on NT?

Any feedback in the form of a posting or an email would be greatly appreciated. I will be happy to share the outcome with anyone who might be interested.

Regards,
Carsten Kristensen
BITsoft as
Bergen,Norway Received on Mon Oct 19 1998 - 05:05:06 CDT