Re: Database Backups

In article <3jfs9f$jlp_at_data.interserv.net> , deangup_at_admin.ci.seattle.wa.us writes:
>> Does anyone have suggestions on ways to decrease the
>> time it would take to perform daily backups of the DB?
>>
>>>>>
>If you're under UNIX you can use the BACKUP command at level 1 to do a
>differential backup based on
>a periodic level 0 (weekly, say), rather than doing a full backup each
 time.
>That way, you copy only files
>that have changed since the latest Level 0. To recover you go to the
 latest
>Level 0 tape, then your
>latest Level 1 tape, for the files you need.

Doing an incremental backup on the database files won't do any good. When the database does a checkpoint, it writes the SCN to the header of every database file, so all your database files would show up as being modified every day.

I don't know if your concern is about the actual length of the backup, or about the availability of the system during the backup. In either case, I would suggest that you look at doing hot backups.

If you concern is availability, using hot backups take care of that, becase the database is available the entire time during the backup.

If your concern is the length of the backup, using hot backups allows you to backup some files on one night, and others on other nights. Recovery is a little more difficult, because you will have to pull files from multiple tapes, but you don't get something for nothing....

Bob Swisshelm | swisshelm_at_Lilly.com | 317 276 5472 Eli Lilly and Company | Lilly Corporate Center | Indianapolis, IN 46285 Received on Tue Mar 07 1995 - 12:51:58 CET