Re: Smartest way to create test databases (including upgrade) ?

> full consistent database export. If I use the consistent=y parameter,
> then during the whole export operation no user can change any data.

Not true! CONSISTENT=Y just means that the export will be consistent -- the only "gotcha" is that the export will need to be assigned to a rollback segment & if there is a lot of DML going on during the export it may fail if the rb segment is too small. Just pick a "quiet time" & use DIRECT=Y (if all character sets are the same) to speed things up.

>
> For the IFS testdatabase I suppose I can use the hot backup datafiles
> and roll forward with the archived redo logfiles. I know that I must
> have the same filedirectory structure for the testdatabase. Since the

No -- you can use an edited copy of a TRACE backup controlfile to change the pathnames by recreating the control file -- you can also change the DB name that way & the archive log mode. Just get into server manager after you've copied the files to your test platform, do a "STARTUP NOMOUNT" & execute an edited version of the file created when you did an "ALTER DATABASE BACKUP CONTROLFILE TO TRACE". Send me email if you'd like a sample copy of one of these scripts. Received on Tue Dec 04 2001 - 09:27:00 CST