Networker

Re: [Networker] Database backup

2004-03-12 12:44:30
Subject: Re: [Networker] Database backup
From: "Werth, Dave" <dave.werth AT GARMIN DOT COM>
To: NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 11:44:22 -0600
Ken,

We also have Oracle & SQL Server databases to backup and we don't use the
Networker modules.  In general a back up of the container files of a running
database will not be recoverable because even if there is no user activity
on the database at the time of the backup the database is still running its
internal monitoring processes and creating check points, etc.  If you
restore those backups the DB engines will discover internal inconsistencies
and refuse to use them.  Because of this we use directives to prevent
Networker from backing up the open DB files since they're not useful.

In our case our use of these DB's is relatively low key and we don't have a
24x7 requirement for either Oracle or SQL Server.  Also neither of them is
especially large relatively speaking.

So, for SQL Server we have a scheduled task that dumps the databases to
files each night before our scheduled Networker backup so we have a
recoverable backup.

For Oracle we run the DB in archive log mode and periodically (every 4 or 5
weeks depending on when our fiscal period ends) shut down Oracle and do a
cold backup of the database files.  Then for the rest of the period we
backup up the archive log files.  The big drawback to the long period is
that if we had to restore the DB near the end of the period we'd have to
restore a large number of archive log files since we don't have room to keep
them all online at once.  This might take us up to 12-14 hours to restore
but it's a rare enough event that we can live with that.  I've only had to
restore twice since we started using Oracle (in 1994) and one of those times
was because of my own stupidity :-(

Because we don't have enough room to keep all of the archive logs on-line
I've set up a cron job that checks every 10 minutes for file system space
where the archive logs are created and when it reaches a certain level it
starts a savegroup that back's up then deletes the archive logs.

Hope this helps.

David Werth
Garmin AT, Inc
(formerly: UPS Aviation Technologies)
(formerly: II Morrow)
Salem, Oregon
dave.werth AT garmin DOT com

-----Original Message-----
From: Ciolek, Ken [mailto:Ken.Ciolek AT AIG DOT COM]
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2004 7:30 AM
To: NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: [Networker] Database backup

We are getting into more and more database backups (sql, oracle) and do not
use the modules for whatever reason. We are finding out that the way we back
them up the data is useless if a recovery had to be done..

We backup the entire box including all database files and the database is
not taken offline? Why is this a useless backup.

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