Thanks Robert. Now I feel guilty, probably delayed the next key document for the advancement of Oracle document. Actually, since I have your fine book, I was hoping somebody else would reply. I can't believe nobody else has tried image copies. From a review of the documentation, I learned two things I didn't know: 1. RMAN can produce online image copies. 2. For a large data warehouse, image copies could offer an important benefit. If you lose a RAID set (controller fails, for instance), it might take a loooong time just to restore the data files. Since many DW use RAID5 for low-activity disks the time may be even longer. In theory, you could image back up each datafile to a different device. Then if you lose a device, you would have a recent datafile copy available elsewhere. Just tell Oracle to use a different file, apply recovery to it, and you are back online. Has anyone tried this setup? Dennis Williams DBA Lifetouch, Inc. -----Original Message----- From: Freeman Robert - IL [mailto:FREEMANR@xxxxxxxx] Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2004 10:32 AM To: DENNIS WILLIAMS; 'oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx '; 'oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ' Subject: RE: REPOST: RMAN Image Copies Dennis, Comments inline below. Sorry to not respond quicker... I'm knee deep in a book right now (Portable DBA: Oracle) and just don't seem to have time for anything right now... Robert -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: 9/2/2004 7:20 AM Subject: REPOST: RMAN Image Copies I posted the following a few days ago, but perhaps it was buried in the concern over Jared's announcement. I can't believe nobody on this list has tried image copies. I had previously ignored them, but a closer look reveals some interesting capabilities. Jared - thank you so much for your years of faithful service. Now your posts won't be inhibited by your responsibilities. Steve - welcome and best wishes. Dennis Williams DBA Lifetouch, Inc. -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of DENNIS WILLIAMS Sent: Monday, August 30, 2004 2:39 PM To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: RMAN Image Copies >> List - Has anyone worked a significant amount with RMAN Image copies? >> Or,better yet, compared image copies to RMAN backup sets? >> One requirement is the ability to schedule cold backups, especially if >> where is any reluctance to trust RMAN. It seems that an image copy >> fits requirement. From what I see, you could recover the database from >> image copies just as if they were created by copying the files (not >> use RMAN), and I can use this to fulfill the cold backup requirement. >> Has anyone tried this? yes, this works. You can actually take the physicla files of an image copy and move it physically (not via RMAN), rename it to the name of the associated data file and perform a manual recovery with that backup. >> Freeman states that datafile (image) copies are registered in the RMAN >> catalog. Will reports like REPORT UNRECOVERABLE take datafile copies in >> mind? It's been so long since I've done anything with image copies that I honestly don't recall if a image copy counts on the unrecoverable report or not. I'm about 99.99% sure that it does count, but I'd need to test that. >> Then he notes that RMAN may use a datafile copy to restore a datafile >> if it is more recent. Has anyone tried this? Well, I have... :-) >> Has anyone chosen to use Image copies in preference to backup sets? Not me... You loose some of the RMAN benefits such as compression. RF --- To unsubscribe - mailto:oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx&subject=unsubscribe To read recent messages - //freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/09-2004 --- To unsubscribe - mailto:oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx&subject=unsubscribe To read recent messages - //freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/09-2004