Re: Using export as a backup strategy

tom.richards_at_rocketmail.com (Thomas Richards) wrote in message news:<f118866.0401080927.145449c1_at_posting.google.com>...
> 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

Besides what everyone else said, sometimes Oracle breaks import, sometimes it even breaks by itself. Logical and Physical backups have different purposes, and neither should be used alone. Upgrade to a supported and patched version, at least.

It's not an impression, Oracle quite clearly states that export alone is not a sufficient backup strategy.

Some things I've seen go wrong on import:

Taking orders of magnitude longer than expected.

Data blowing import up after reaching a certain value.

Imported data being larger than exported and no longer fitting.

Bugs.

Rollback reconfiguration required.

Large files issues.

Disk/network issues.

Constraint issues.

Goof-ups having to do with difference between FULL and USER exports.

Interrupted/twice done import issues.

Grants.

Strange applications.

Synonyms.

Statistics.

Packages.

People trying to edit data in export files.

And those are just off the top of my head...

jg

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