OK, here is the scoop.
The the ORACLE Worldwide Customer Support Service / Support News 4Q97' it
states the following:
To protect customer data against loss or damage and ensure Oracle's
ability to provide timely service and support, Oracle Worldwide Customer
Support Services and Oracle Server Technologies have developed the
following policy:
Oracle cannot guarantee customers' data integrity and product
functionality where third-party products alter the internal contents of the
Oracle database files, data blocks, log files or control files. Third-party
products or customer-developed programs which alter the internal contents
of these files may introduce inconsistencies that rendor the data unusable.
In such situations, customers may be required to restore from the last
backup prior to the first use of the third-party product in order for
Oracle to provide effective assistance.
Examples of such products include data reorganization tools, data
loaders,
defragmentation tools, products that conduct incremental backups of only
changed portions of data, or any product that attempts to alter the
contents of the Oracle data files, blocks, logs or control files.
This excludes simple copying utilities such as operating system utilities
or any other product that reproduces an exact image of the data as it was
originally written by Oracle.
Oracle customers are encouraged to work with third-party software vendors
to determine how that vendors' product interacts with Oracle technology.
This will permit them to determine if the above information is pertinent
to their environment, and if using the product may compromise their data
retention and recovery capabilities.
=================================================================
I hope the above information clarifies this thread that has been going back
and forth for awhile.
Keenan D Stratton
DMR Consulting Group
Keenan AT Webname DOT com
On Wednesday, March 04, 1998 12:15 PM, Hilton Tina [SMTP:HiltonT AT TCE DOT COM]
wrote:
| Here's what BMC said when we asked them about Oracle supporting SQL
| Backtrack. It sounds like good news to us, since we've already
| purchased it.
|
| ----------
|
| BMC is not aware of any statement by Oracle that they are not
| supporting 3rd party backup tools. We are members of the Oracle
| Business Alliance Partnership program as well as the Oracle Backup
| Solutions Program.
|
| SQL-BackTrack uses the Oracle API's when providing database backup
| and
| recovery capability. Where BackTrack exceeds the functionality of
| the
| API is with incremental backups. Since the release of BackTrack
| for
| Oracle in late 1995,neither BMC or Oracle have documented any cases
| in
| which BackTrack incremental backups have compromised any data.
|
| Tina Hilton
| Thomson Consumer Electronics
|
