Hello there,

I have a question about backup on Oracle and would like to get a
confirmation.  I understand TSM data protection provide ONLINE backup and
restore of database, i.e. database is still up and running during backup
and restore.  My questions are:

1.   Every time I do a backup on Oracle, I'll shutdown Oracle first.  Do I
still need TSM data protection ?  From what I understand, once I shutdown
Oracle, database is just a "file" to system and no process will lock these
file, so TSM should be able to backup these files safely without TSM data
protection, am I correct ?

ANSWER: [YES]

2.   I heard that Oracle 8 provide tools to perform incremental backup on
database.  Do I still need TSM data protection ?

ANSWER: [YES] and the fulls and recovery logs must be done with TDP as well.
Each piece as Oracle calls it is recorded in the RMAN catalog and you
recover to a point in time.  RMAN can do both online and offline full
backups.  RMAN is the ORACLE Recovery Manager interface to the backup
product that implements the Media Management API provided by Oracle.

Note that it is impossible to perform a full online restore, but you can
restore tablespaces and datafiles while online or offline.  Full Backups can
occur either online or offline.

It is expensive but a good product if you want to use RMAN.

Thanks for your advice.

Regards
William

Tivoli Software, IBM Software Group, IBM China/Hong Kong Limited
11/F, PCCW Tower, Taikoo Place, 979 King's Road, Hong Kong
Internet : ngwso AT hk1.ibm DOT com
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