Re: Oracle 8i Database with 18,000 Partitions

"Tom Glover" <tom.glover_at_ceridian.com> wrote in message news:7a7ecd29.0211111832.4002d80d_at_posting.google.com...
> As for the "restore", from what I understand, you have the ability
> with Oracle to restore a backup of a partition back to that partition
> (or to another). The design, as pushed by the vendor, was to restore
> the data for the customer from the earlier backup as needed (due to
> unintended changes, incorrect data, etc). Sorry I can't go into more
> details on the particulars. Can you shed any light on this "restore"
> mechanism? Is there any way that it could handle this volume of
> actions? Or, do I simply misunderstand how or what this functionality
> is?

It *sounds* to me as if by 'restore' what is meant is partition exchange. (http://otn.oracle.com/docs/products/oracle9i/doc_library/release2/server.92 0/a96521/partiti.htm#11985)
This isn't really meant to be used as backup/restore functionality. Not only that but I would be extremely worried about an application that seems to expect data to be innaccurate, incomplete and become corrupt over time. Obviously I may be missing the point big time but you seem to be suggesting that this operation would happen for 100-200 customers per day perhaps. this seems a very hiogh rate of 'unintended changes'.

In terms of what sort of DBA/Designer you would need I think the answer would have to be a very highly skilled and experienced one. The whole enterprise sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Moreover (though of course I can't find it now) I seem to recall that the proportion of Oracle installations that actually use partitioning is something around 5%. Presumably the same would apply to DBAs.

Does the vendor have any reference sites for you to prove that they have actually achieved anything on a similar scale and design?

--
Niall Litchfield
Oracle DBA
Audit Commission UK
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