It's backed up nightly, fulls on Sundays, incrementals the rest of the week. I have not tested the backups, it's always been one of those "I really need to do that one of these days..." type activities. Given the suggestions from this group, I will be pursuing the RMAN approach to refreshing the lower DBs. ________________________________ From: Dennis Williams [mailto:oracledba.williams@xxxxxxxxx] Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 1:49 PM To: Coleman, Kelley (HAC) Cc: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Testing Refresh Procedure Kelley, Is the database backed up on a regular basis? Do you trust the procedure? How recently has it been tested? Ever? I advocate where possible, creating the test and development databases by recovering a backup. Nobody has enough time to test backups. But if you can combine it with the request to create a test or development database then you have a double winner. Dennis Williams On 3/21/06, Coleman, Kelley (HAC) <Kelley.Coleman@xxxxxx> wrote: Does anyone have a standard procedure for doing db refreshes that they'd be willing to share? I'd be going from Production down to test and development dbs. These were usually done by a co-worker who recently moved on to greener pastures. He didn't leave any desk procedures, so I've been winging it, but it seems like I'm making it harder than it needs to be. Should I drop relevant schemas before importing, so it's basically from scratch? I know the pastures guy would essentially do two imports, one just of table structures - no rows - then one just of data. Does that seem like a sound procedure? Kelley Coleman Database Administrator VA Health Administration Center Denver, Colorado 303-331-7521-o Confidentiality Note: This e-mail is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential, or otherwise protected from disclosure. Dissemination, distribution, or copying of this e-mail or the information herein by anyone other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail, phone, or fax, and destroy the original message and all copies. Thank you