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Re: Flashback Recovery

From: Arthernan <arthernan_at_hotmail.com>
Date: 24 Apr 2007 09:11:50 -0700
Message-ID: <1177431109.898480.120070@r35g2000prh.googlegroups.com>


On Apr 23, 10:50 pm, DA Morgan <damor..._at_psoug.org> wrote:
> Arthernan wrote:
> > On Apr 23, 5:39 pm, Arthernan <arther..._at_hotmail.com> wrote:
> >> On Apr 16, 4:30 pm, DA Morgan <damor..._at_psoug.org> wrote:
>
> >>> NetComrade wrote:
> >>>> 2 questions
> >>>> a) can someone point to a source that descrives how theflashbackarea
> >>>> actually works
> >>>> b) did anyone ever had to 'flash back' a database in production? I
> >>>> really can't think of a scenario where it would be useful (since it
> >>>> forces you to lose
> >>>> .......
> >>>> We run Oracle 9iR2,10gR1/2 on RH4/RH3 and Solaris 10 (Sparc)
> >>>> remove NSPAM to email
> >>> FlashbackDatabase is one of the most useful and valuable features
> >>> added in 10g.
> >>> Very simply I use it with guaranteed restore points any time we are:
> >>> 1. Patching applications
> >>> 2. Patching the database
> >>> 3. Batch loading
> >>> Flashbackis not useful because you use it a lot any more than a
> >>> fire extinguisher is valuable because you use it a lot. They are
> >>> invaluable because they are available for use when required.
> >>> As to how theflashbackarea works I would suggest that this is a
> >>> topic too large for a single paragraph in a usenet group and that
> >>> you read the docs athttp://tahiti.oracle.com.
> >>> --
> >>> Daniel A. Morgan
> >>> University of Washington
> >>> damor..._at_x.washington.edu
> >>> (replace x with u to respond)
> >>> Puget Sound Oracle Users Groupwww.psoug.org
> >> I have been looking at adding flashback-like functionality to our
> >> company system. I can see the benefit from a DBA perspective.
>
> >> In our case I am most interested on giving this functionality to the
> >> end users. But I am hesitant because it seems to require a great deal
> >> of DB configuration and it makes the task of looking at history very
> >> different. For example I did not see anywhere where you could do a
> >> query like this.
>
> >> Select Employee_name, Salary, DateAdded, DateRemoved from Employee
> >> where DateAdded<point_in_time and (DateRemoved>point_in_time or
> >> DateRemoved is null)
>
> >> Now I don't pretend for flashback to work MY way. But for this to work
> >> for my end users I would need to show them history at the record
> >> level. So they can then pick a sinlge record/transaction and recreate
> >> it they need it, or maybe just research changes already made.
>
> >> Does anybody have experience using Oracle Flashback in a similar way?
>
> > Before I get abused for not reading the manual, I'd like to say that I
> > did see this
>
> > Select Employee_name, Salary from Employee
> > as of timestamp point_in_time;
>
> > But this leaves out the columns DateAdded and DateRemoved. Whatever
> > pseudocolumns that could exist with the time of the changes are very
> > important for the end user research.
>
> > Of course, the alternative is to use triggers of to improve the
> > application logic, which is what I currently do. One benefit of
> > writing your own flashback logic is that it is your own and possibly
> > not dependent on oracle propietary features.
>
> There is little evidence, from what you wrote, that you read the
> manual. Your statement about "leaves out" is incorrect. Take a look
> at the Flashback Transaction Query demo in Morgan's Library atwww.psoug.org.
> --
> Daniel A. Morgan
> University of Washington
> damor..._at_x.washington.edu
> (replace x with u to respond)
> Puget Sound Oracle Users Groupwww.psoug.org

Thank you, that did help. There are just tooo many manuals. I searched for the ROWDEPENDENCIES keyword and finally the right manual came up. "Application Developers Guide - Fundamentals" I just did not expect to find it there.

So a query similar to what I wrote would look like this

Select Employee_name, Salary, version_starttime, version_endtime from Employee versions

Having gone throught some database redesign already, and gone to an almost insert only database design. I'm not sure that flashback would be useful for our case.

I want to make a distincion bewteen historical data and error data. It is different to change a ph# because there was a typo, than if that p# truly belonged to the individual and it has been changed. So this second type of historical changes would still need to be addressed within the database structure, and still benefit from an insert only database approach.

There are other database admin considerations that could make Flashback useful for us, but I can't justify it at the application level. Having said that I would love to hear other opinions on this. Received on Tue Apr 24 2007 - 11:11:50 CDT

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