Rman vs. Manual Hot Backups

I need some advice from users out there who have tried both methods. I am running Oracle 8.05 in HP-UX with Omniback II v3.5 as tape media management.

Currently we backup cold every night. In the process of switching to Hot backup with a cold backup once a week. I am testing both methods, RMAN and Manual Hot. While RMAN seems to work, it seems that most Oracle DBA's don't use it. I guess this is due to the extra db required, and the chunkiness of RMAN.

The problems that bother me about RMAN:

1. Not sure how to restore RMAN Backup (Hot Or Cold) to development server.
2. Can't seem to manually touch the files on tape (Omniback).
3. Recovery catalog maintenance. When a tape is over written (2week tape cycle) it seems to be a manual process to remove the old session on the tape from the recovery catalog.

Any help would me much appreciated with this matter, in helping me with the RMAN vs. Manual Hot Backup decision, and with the listed RMAN concerns.

Thanks,

Alan Received on Fri Jan 04 2002 - 08:01:31 CST