Re: Getting started with RMAN

So the idea of an export being a logical backup does pertain?

This is the first time, i've heard an export not being considered a 
"backup".

joe

_______________________________________
Joe Testa, Oracle Certified Professional 
Senior Engineering & Administration Lead
(Work) 614-677-1668
(Cell) 614-312-6715






From:
Guillermo Alan Bort <cicciuxdba@xxxxxxxxx>
To:
janine@xxxxxxxxxx
Cc:
Jeremiah Wilton <jwilton@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, oracle-l L 
<oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date:
05/05/2010 08:13 AM
Subject:
Re: Getting started with RMAN
Sent by:
oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx



Just a note... EXPORTS ARE NOT BACKUP! they are a mean for transporting 
data between databases... THEY SHOULD NEVER be considered backups or 
relied upon as backups.

That being said, there are rare instances in which having an export turns 
out to be useful and reduces back-to-production time, but it is not a 
restore/recovery, just a solution to a (usually) user-caused problem (like 
data deletion).

The only truly valid backup taken with 'export' would be a cold export 
(i.e. with the DB in restricted mode, and even then ensuring that no app 
user has dba privileges), but if you have the downtime window, a cold 
backup is much better and a lot faster to restore.


sorry for the slight OT.

hth
Alan.-


On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 7:05 PM, Janine Sisk <janine@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On May 4, 2010, at 2:56 PM, Jeremiah Wilton wrote:

> On May 4, 2010, at 2:41 PM, Janine Sisk wrote:
>
>> I just took a quick look at Oracle's Backup and Recovery doc to see 
what I would be getting myself into in using RMAN.  Since this is an 
Amazon EC2 instance, there's no tape drive and my only choice is to back 
up to "disk" (really an EBS volume created for this purpose).
>
> Janine,
>
> Is there a reason you don't want to use Oracle's OSB Cloud MML for RMAN 
to back up to S3?

I'm pretty sure we don't have a license for it and I'm way too far down 
the food chain of DBAs to ask for it.

> That's pretty much the standard way to back up Oracle on EC2. If you 
can't afford the license for that, I would go with hot backup mode plus 
EBS snapshots to S3.  Simply backing up to an EBS volume in the same 
availability zone seems like too little protection for my taste.

I already have two forms of backups going - EBS snapshots done with the 
database in backup mode, and a full export every night (which also gets 
backed up to a different snapshot).   This would be a third method, and I 
would snapshot the RMAN EBS as well.  You can never have too many backups, 
right? :)

> On EC2, I use one EBS volume as a flash (fast??) recovery area (FRA) for 
RMAN disk backups of the database and also as my local archivelog 
destination.  I then use RMAN's "backup recovery area" to S3 with backup 
optimization using the OSB Cloud MML.
>
> If the retention configuration is set correctly, you never have to write 
archivelog management scripts or manually delete anything.  When the FRA 
reaches 100% full, as long as it satisfies retention parameters, Oracle 
removes the oldest items in the FRA to make room for incoming 
archivelogs/backups.  It is very hands-off.

That's exactly why I'm contemplating setting up RMAN now, instead of 
waiting for that mythical time when I will have more time to think about 
it.

>> So... what's your favorite book/website/other resource on configuring 
RMAN for the first time?
>
> Oracle Press just came out with "Oracle RMAN 11g Backup and Recovery" ( 
http://amzn.to/cn8LyoI ). I guess I am supposed to steer you towards that 
since I wrote the chapter on backing up to Amazon S3.  OTOH, the Oracle 
documentation is pretty decent too.

Duly noted - thanks!  I just realized I have the 9i version of that book, 
which I guess tells you how long I've been thinking about doing this...

janine

> Regards,
>
> Jeremiah Wilton
> Blue Gecko, Inc.
> http://www.bluegecko.net
>


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