How do you hot-backup ORACLE?

[Randy Hagedorn]

Hi,
I am looking to see what backup utilities people are using to Hot-Backup ORACLE.

We use fbackup and even though we are in hot-backup mode, updates can still occur to datafiles and control files and thus fbackup detects the change and will not backup the files.

So, I was wondering what other people's experiences are?

Thanks in advance.
Dewy

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

You can use utilities like 'fbackup' to backup and Oracle database, but you need to alter your tablespace to begin and then end "backup" mode; something like:

alter tablespace $TBLSPACE begin backup
...(do your backup)
alter tablespace $TBLSPACE end backup

Regards!

...JRF...

[Randy Hagedorn]

JRF,

We are altering our databases with the begin backup and end backup procedures. But fbackup will still skip the datafiles, because updates still occur during the backup and thus fbackup skips it.

Part of my question, is that, is fbackup capable of cleanly backing up the data or do I need a third-party utility?

Thanks, Dewy

[Leif Halvarsson_2]

Hi

Which Oracle version do you use. In Orace 8 and later is a utility "RMAN" for high performance online backups which can be used "standalone" but also together with a 3-party backup program (as OmniBack) for media mangement.

[Randy Hagedorn]

We are on ORACLE 8.1.7

[Dave Chamberlin]

We use omniback to do our hot and cold backups. The pre-exec script puts things in backup mode, the post-exec script returns them to normal. Works well for us.

[MANOJ SRIVASTAVA]

Hi Dewy

Essentially waht hapeens when u put the database in abckup mode is that the users still use the database bu the modifications are stoerd in the archive logs , and the real data is not modified . When you take the Database out of the backup mode the oracle applies the logs back to the real data and brings it online , This enables the suer to sue the database even if the backup is being taken . Please note the backup has to complete soon and the archive logs become huse and then it takes longer to revert back.


Manoj Srivastava

[Jeanine Kone]

I'd have to say that you should be able to use fbackup. I have used it for mine without any problems.

[Randy Hagedorn]

Here is an example of the fbackup warning we get.

22: /u03/oradata/ORD/user03.dbf 1536016
23: /u03/oradata/ORD/user04.dbf 1536016
fbackup(3009): WARNING: File number 23 (/u03/oradata/ORD/user04.dbf)
was not successfully backed up

Does this seem to be a hot-backup issue?

Thanks

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Are these files part of the tablespace that you did the alter tablespace on? Fbackup has detected that these files have been modified since the backup started.

Let me also mention a Plan B. You could shutdown the database, make OnlineJFS snapshot mounts of the Oracle filesystems, and restart the database. This operation will take about two minutes typically and your users can go back to work. You then do your backups on the snapshot mounted filesystems. You have almost all the benefits of a hotbackup with the safety and security of a cold backup. When the backups are finished, you unmount the snapshots.