Oracle 10g - flashback database questions

OK I admit I haven't done much research into this but i'm just looking for some hands-on experience.

Oracle 10g supports the FLASHBACK DATABASE feature. This allows to do a recovery based on information stored in a flashback area (flashback logs).

Now my questions :
1) Can you use flashback database to do a complete db point-in-time recovery ?
2) Can flashback database be combined with/followed by a "normal" recovery using the archive log files ?
3) Does archive logging need to be enabled for flashback database to work ? Or can this work independently of each other ? 4) How much (extra) diskspace is needed to store the flashback logs in comparison to the diskspace consumed by archive log files ? 5) What if you start flashing back a database and something goes wrong (example a corrupt flashback log file) ? Is recovery possible of corrupt flashback log files ? Or can the flashback operation be rolled back ? 6) Is FLASHBACK TABLE using the same flashback log files (if it's enabled) or does it still use the undo records ?
7) A flashback database recovery operation is supposed to be faster than a recovery using the archive log files. What is the recovery gain that can be expected ? Any ways of tuning the recovery process ? Can flashback database be performed in parallel ?
8) Oracle 10g Release 2 : will this new version have some additional/fixed flashback database features ?

Thanks in advance,
Matthias Received on Mon May 16 2005 - 05:50:18 CDT