FreeLists / oracle-l / RE:Backup and Recovery and DR - RMAN vs. NOT

[Paula Stankus <paulastankus@xxxxxxxxx>]

Guys,
   
  My system admin. has a very strong personality and he is very intelligent.  
However, he also is leaving in about a year and his junior is not at the same 
level.  I just started and they have setup scripts to do alter tablespace to 
back tablespaces up.  In order to decrease their total window they have decided 
to alter tablespace to begin backup, split mirror, end tablespace backup and 
resilver.  They have bought a large SAN to enable them to do this.  I believe 
Networker Version 7.3 writes out clones at the same time as original tapes.  So 
they will do that as well so that they get their clones for DR faster.
   
  I am definitely used to using RMAN and using Networker solely as the Media 
Management layer for writing directly to tape.  However, I do see the benefits 
of writing to disk and having some database backups on disk.  They also are not 
interested in purchasing the Oracle agent from networker for the 5 boxes.  
   
  I know that they are against Differential backups and RMAN as (a) they think 
both will complicate the backup process with little payoff and (b) I believe 
they like controlling thrings through Networker (which of couse could still be 
done).  I am thinking the advantages (especially if a great deal of data is 
static) with RMAN is:
   
  -easier and more organized tracking of backups (but again, Networker does 
this as well)
  -ability to do backups at a more granular level with differential backups, 
block-level backups and recoveries, read-only tablespace backups solutions 
available
  -ability to write directly to tape and restore/recover directly from tape in 
parallel.
  -ability to execute backups/restores/recoveries independently to a larger 
extent than having to call the system admin. if we need to go back farther than 
a day.
   
  I am thinking that RMAN would be a good bet.  Does anyone have any good ideas 
for convincing folks that this is a good option or should I just "go with the 
flow".  
   
  Thanks,
  Paula

                
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