Re: Using export as a backup strategy

Thomas Richards wrote:

> Oracle 8i 8.1.5 on NT.
>
> I have a database for which a day's data loss is an acceptable risk.
> From reading the Oracle Backup and Recovery guide, I get the
> impression that export is recommended as a supplement to a backup
> strategy rather than a backup strategy in itself.
>
> Please can someone explain why export only can't be used in a scenario
> where a day's data loss is acceptable and there is a period of no user
> activity when a consistent export can be achieved?
>
> If I lose a disk, can I not create an empty database and load the
> previous night's backup?
>
> Is there any advantage to doing physical backups that I have
> overlooked? For example, if I do export only should I be doing control
> file backups as well?
>
> Any thoughts on this much appreciated
>
> Thanks
> Tom

Many and all of which are detailed at tahiti.oracle.com, otn.oracle.com, and in many books. Basically ... your ability to restore from an export is zero unless you happen to get very lucky with what goes wrong.

If you can afford to lose a day's data, Ok but do you really want to just because you can?, then I'd suggest nightly backups or nightly replication to a stand-by machine.

-- 
Daniel Morgan
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