Re: exp and archive available.... recover table

Alexander Skwar wrote:

> Hello.
>
> On 11 Jul., 21:59, "rogergor..._at_gmail.com" <rogergor..._at_gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > On Jul 11, 3:46 pm, "rogergor..._at_gmail.com" <rogergor..._at_gmail.com>
> > wrote:
>
> > > If you really need help, go to $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/demo/ and look
> > > at and play with the 4 case*.rcv files.
> [...]
> > http://www.psoug.org/reference/rman_demos.html
>
> I now had a chance to check out those pointers. First of, they really
> look interesting and can teach me quite a bit. But they just deal
> with the "simple" case of having to backup/recover Oracle databases,
> don't they? They don't deal with "external" directories, do they?

Congratulations Alexander, you've managed to generate two of the most laughable threads I've seen in usenet in a long time ;-)

A few bits of advice, if I may. Firstly, ditch Google Groups & use a usenet client & account instead (I recommend XanaNews & http://news.individual.net). Then you can create a killfile & never have to see Sybrand's arrogant tripe ever again (apart from when others quote it, obviously).

Secondly, one of the usenet rules some posters adhere to is to never admit it when you're wrong. You seem like a decent, intelligent chap, so do the decent, intelligent thing, & stop replying to posts about whether exp is or isn't a backup. Exp allows you to recover data that would otherwise be lost & is therefore, by definition, a backup. It's obviously not the *best* way to backup Oracle data by any means, but nobody's arguing otherwise.

As for your specific problem, RMAN can't backup external files. It's hard to tell without knowing your application, but could you run a script to lock the vault files & directories (i.e. make them read only) before starting a hot backup, so in the unlikely situation that a user does try to save a change, they're blocked from doing so until the backup finishes & the files are unlocked? If so, you wouldn't need to shutdown the database, & RMAN would be your best solution.

Alternatively you could do the vault backup first, then RMAN, but if you need to restore, do an incomplete (Point-In-Time) recovery up to the time of the vault backup. This would give you a consistent database, albeit at the possible expense of a few transactions.

Finally, a 3rd party application like BrightStor ARCserve may be able to include external files in a consistent backup.

-- 
Preston.