Re: Backing up the ORACLE DB from Hell ...

In article <3k9cfl$92k_at_blackhole.delmarva.com>, John K Scoggin Jr <scoggin_at_delmarva.com> wrote:
> We are working on a system design for an SAP R/3 installation which is
> estimated at around 60GB in size (initially) with the potential for
> growth into the 200 GB range.
 

>
> We anticipate installing the DB on a Sparc 2000 or Cray 6400 with multiple
> SPARC storage Arrays. Does anyone have any experience in backing up an
> ORACLE DB of this size?
>
>Thanks.
>
> - John

I agree about the multiple DLT. Another thing that can help and make a big differenc is to use your disk mirrors to create (at disk speeds) fast snapshots of datafiles. By using the VXVM part of the SSA you can even bring the DB back up with a 'snapshot mirror' that logs changes between an offline full mirror and the online one. This means the offline mirror is dumping to tape while the DB is still effectively mirrored. Then after the dump is done the snapshot mirror is used to update the full-offline mirror as they are exchanged.

All this would allow you to run cold backups without bringing the DB down for more than a few minutes, or even do hot-backups... If you want to bring the DB down for an hour or two, 2 DLT's would probably get the job done with a simple ufsdump: 6000 MB / 2 MB/s /2 DLT's ~= 4 hr. + tape swapping time... and a similar cal. with 5 drives gets around the same time...

Bob Larson
rcl_at_cray.com

-- 

Robert C Larson
rcl_at_oregon.cray.com <| Don't try to reply if it says rcl_at_walter.cray.com