alter tablespace ... end backup.... OR not?

From: Peter van Rijn <p.vanrijnREMOVE_at_THISzhew.nl>
Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2002 07:40:59 +0100
Message-ID: <v0g0cv8v427e3b@corp.supernews.com>

This morning I experienced this funny feeling that you think to understand something and still are puzzled by this something not following your logic.

Scenario:

---

We're in the process of migrating one of our databases (7.3.4 --> 8.1.7, at last). Yesterday we had severe problems with the HP-UX box the database resides on, and one of the consequences was that we didn't have any backups made on this server.
Our sysadmin asked me if we should take the backup after having solved our problems. I said OK, I'll put the tablespaces in backup mode, so you can take the backup.

This morning, riding on my bicycle back to work, I suddenly realized I had forgotten to use the "alter tablespace ... end backup" statements, so that would have been the first thing to do.
After arriving I soon discovered that the midnight backup had caused the database to go down (abort, startup restrict, shutdown). On startup the database complained about file 1, it needed media recovery.

OK, I can understand that, so I fullfilled it's needs, and the process ended as one hopes: log files applied, database open.

But now comes the funny part, as I see it: my tablespaces were no longer in backup mode. Nobody ever supplied the "end backup" statements, so I suppose it was implicitly done by the recovery. Is this expected behaviour?

regards,
Peter Received on Tue Dec 24 2002 - 00:40:59 CST