On 15 Jul 2002 at 21:50, Seay, Paul wrote:
> From: Mark Stapleton [mailto:stapleto AT BERBEE DOT COM]
> Sent: Monday, July 15, 2002 11:51 AM
> To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
> Subject: Re: AIX Oracle Snapshots
>
>
> From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU]On Behalf
> Of Markus Veit > has anyone tried to backup an AIX oracle server using
> image and > snapshot backup? We want to backup an Oracle server
> without using > RMON. Can anyone think of a way to backup Oracle
> without setting up > RMON?
>
Without rmon, Oracle has 2 basic methods of doing backups:

1)  Logical backups:   export cmd

This consists of a logical dump of the data.  You end up
with a file that contains sql commands to recreate
your tablespaces, tables, indexes, procedures, etc.  It
is transportable between platforms - a export file from
an aix system can be used to create that db on a hp or
nt box.

2)  Hot backups

Your db must be in archive log mode, where oracle creates
a copy of the redo logs when a log switch occurs.  You
walk through your tablespaces, putting them into backup
mode, use an os cmd to backup the files for that tablespace,
take the tablespace out of backup mode, and do the same with
the other tablespaces.  This gives a image backup of the db
that is taken live.  The key is the archive logs - you must
have the archive logs created during the hot backup.

Our site uses both exports and hot backups.  We seldom, if ever,
shutdown a db to do a cold backup.  We've created our own scrips
that automatically perform these tasks, and are scheduled via
cron.  Our hot backup script copies/compresses the db files
to another disk area.  TSM then just runs a normal backup of
that disk area - to tsm, our oracle backup is just a bunch of
files on disk.  We have other scripts that make sure all
archive logs get backed up.

Backup sftw vendors (ibm, legato, veritas, etc) all make interface
agents for Oracle, but all the ones I'm aware of are interfaces
to rman, not a old style hot backup.

Note: rman can perform hot backups - but they work differently than
the hot backup method I've described above.

At the least, you need to hit the Oracle manuals to learn about
Oracle backup/recovery, and expecially hot backups and exports - you
need both.  I strongly suggest the Oracle backup+recovery class after
the basic dba class.  Also, a backup is only good if it works on a
restore - backups must be tested!!!!!!