Re: Netware Backup Tools

In article <CotpCF.63n_at_csn.org> jwdxt_at_csn.org (Jim Deeming) writes:
>radar_at_busadm.cba.hawaii.edu wrote:
>In article <mford.8.000C2658_at_warren.med.harvard.edu>
>mford_at_warren.med.harvard.edu (Mark J. Ford) writes:
 

>: >Does anyone know of any Netware backup systems which will backup an Oracle 7
>: >for Netware system while it is running? We currently use ArcServe 5.0x and
>: >DBAgent to do this, but want to know if other products exist. The DBAgent
>: >part runs on the Netware server with Oracle and automatically puts it into
>: >backup mode when the backup occurs. Any product names that do this or
>: >something like this would be appreciated!
 

>: I am currently running Oracle for Netware RDBM ver 6.036 and it is my
>: understanding that the database had to be shutdown in order to perform
>: backups. The reason being that the "control" file, which contains
>: information on the state of the database is written at shutdown. Trying
>: to reinstall your database from tape backup would not work without the
>: control file.
 

>: Does Oracle 7 not need the control file for recovery?
 

>: Currently I'm using Novaback to do backups. However I have to shutdown
>: the database, copy the files to tape, then restart. This is not that big
>: of a problem since the database is inactive at night. Yet if it had to
>: be on line 24 hours a day it could get ugly.
 

>You are correct - the only Novell file-based backup you can rely on is
>while your Oracle database is down. You might explore using some
>EXPORT schemes for backups if you want to minimize shutting down your
>database.
>I was amused to see that the Connor Networker backup software I am
>testing "backs up" my open tablespace datafiles. That would be
>pretty useless in a restore situation...

According to the DBA FAQ and the Oracle 7 Server Admin Guide, you can back up a database IF the db is in ARCHIVELOG mode and you alter the tablespaces that you want to back up to BACKUP state. The FAQ gives an example for VMS that I assume works, but I can't get the same sort of thing to work on netware. My backup program (Tapeware) tells me that the db files are busy, even though the tablespaces are in BACKUP.

I'm about ready to bite the bullet and start exporting the database for backups, even though this takes a LOT of extra disk space (which I have now but I don't know how long that will last).

Any other suggestions?

Joel Gallun                Internet: joel.gal_at_jntsea.gsfc.nasa.gov
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