Re: Hot backups vs. Offline Backups

jklaren_at_qualcomm.com (Jon Klaren) wrote:

>You may want to consider just a good application to work with your
>backup system to have a complete backup. If your system is like ours,
>shutting down the database is more problematic than the time it takes
>to mirror or backup the server. One package that I understand is on
>the market is St. Bernard's Open File Manager. It apparently works
>with all backup systems from ArcServe to Colorado, and will allow them
>to backup Oracle or any other file system even if there are users
>logged in and making changes to the files. We are going to be getting
>an evaluation copy inhouse and see how it works? You can contact them
>at www.stbernard.com or on compuserve at GO STBERNARD.

I thought there was more to the issue than just whether users were accessing the files. Unless the database has been shut down normally (you can include shutdown immediate in this defintion if you want, many people would not) the database files will not be in a consistent state - ie some parts of a transaction may have been written to disk and other parts still be cached waiting writeback.

Is anybody prepared to comment or have experience with the product.

--
All opinions expressed above are mine, and not my employer 
Russell McDonald  e-mail mcdonaldr_at_logica.com
Logica UK Limited  http://www.logica.com/