Restore from Hot Backup Question

I'm running Oracle 7.3.4 on NT4.0SP6a(I have to run this configuration). I have a 15GB database with two controlfiles on separate disks and the DB is running in archive mode. I have written the standard sql script for hot backups every night to set each tablespace into backup mode and file copy the datafiles. I also get a binary and trace of the controlfile, the trace dump directory, the init and password files and the archive logs.

On testing disaster recovery, I format the box and then rebuild the RAIDs, install NT and Oracle. The reason I'm running 7.3.4 is that Oracle is wrapped in an Agilent proprietary app called Chemstore. When I run the Chemstor install, it also runs a canned perl script that creates the DB instance. After that has been completed, I shutdown the database instance that was just created and stop all oracle services.

When I restore, I simply copy all of the datafiles, binary controlfile, init file and archive logs dated after the date of the hot backup.

I have tried to restore with simply my hot backup in this fashion and I have a few questions:

Like I said, I have two controlfiles on separate disks for safety. When my backup script executes 'alter database backup controlfile
'backup dir' reuse;' it backs up a binary copy of the first
controlfile. After I restore, I start the DB in 'startup mount' and it complains that the second controlfile isn't there. Can I simply copy the controlfile into the second location and rename it
'controlfile2' and then open the DB in mount, or should I edit my init
file before I open the DB to reflect only one controlfile and then after recovery is done, create a second controlfile in sql?

Also, since I was restoring over the newer install, the online redologs are ofcourse not consistent with the restored DB. Should I delete these new redologs before I start the DB in mount?

Am I doing this wrong? Should I just rebuild my controlfile from trace?

Could anyone give me a definitive procedure to restore from a hot backup?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in Advance, gary. Received on Wed Jan 16 2002 - 07:52:32 CST