Does Oracle have a built-in 'dump' command that performs a database dump
to a file or series of files?    This is how we backup our Sybase ASE
servers.   We dump to a filer, then backup that filer to tape after the
database dump has finished.

Since the database dumps stay on the filer for a few days, more often than
not, the DBA can perform restores without any interaction with the
backup/restore system.

Of course this method gets tougher and more expensive with very large
databases.

-Jon


On Thu, 9 May 2002, Donaldson, Mark wrote:

> 
> There's a couple of options with Oracle:
> 
> 1. Use RMAN - Oracle's internal backup tool.  This takes another license
> ($$) from Veritas and Netbackup will basically provide little more then
> media services.  It's nice if you want the DBA's fully managing the backups.
> It also allows incremental backups of Oracle files - the only option to
> permit this.
> 
> 2. Cold Backups - Shut down oracle and send the files just using a regular
> file backup.  You can do this with a pre-schedule job.  See the
> bpstart_notify and bpend_notify descriptions in the manual.  In short, you
> can setup a class for the cold backup, then put the Oracle shutdown in
> bpstart_notify.<classname> and the oracle restart in
> bpend_notify.<classname>.  Note, you usually have to increase the wait times
> in the master server to allow enough time to get the DB down and up.  See
> the bp.conf entries fo BPSTART_TIMEOUT and BPEND_TIMEOUT.  The downside is
> the DB is out for the duration of the backup.
> 
> 3. Rolling Hot backups - this is our internal term for this method.  The
> technique here is using the user-backup feature of NB.  (Note the DB has to
> be in log mode to successfully put a tablespace in hot-backup mode.
> 
>   a. Query the database for all tablespace names 
>   b. For each tablespace, in sequence
>      1. query oracle for datafiles related to the tablespace (place in a
> file)
>      2. place tablespace in hot-backup mode
>      3. use bpbackup to send the list of datafiles to netbackup
>      4. remove tablespace from hot-backup mode
>      5. loop for next tablespace.
>   c. Alter control file to trace and send that file via bpbackup, too.
>   d. Roll the redo logs - wait for completion.
>   e. Send relavent archived redo log files, this is the set that starts from
> 
>      just before the first tablespace is put into HB mode up to and
> including 
>      the last one that results from rolling the redo logs.
> 
> This makes a whole bunch of NB images, one per tablespace, that represents a
> single backup of the entire database.  To track these as a set, we tie them
> together with a keyword based on backup date & instance name.
> 
> Restoring is a pain, compared to a cold backup, because there's a lot of
> redo logs to apply to get to a time-consistent image but it does work and
> the DB stays up all the time.
> 
> 4. Yet another method is to do something expensive with split mirrors or
> BCV's but that's too big to detail here.
> 
> If anyone has another method, let's hear about it.
> 
> HTH - Mark
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mauro Palmiero [mailto:mpalmiero AT intin DOT it]
> Sent: Thursday, May 09, 2002 6:45 AM
> To: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
> Subject: [Veritas-bu] pre-command and post-command
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I have a client with db oracle, I need to backup the db when It's stop, how
> can do It?
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Veritas-bu maillist  -  Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
> http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
>