fbackup versus OmniBack (duplicate question from Databases forum)

[Vince Arends]

Background information - We are running HP-UX 11.0 on a K460. Using Oracle 8.0.5 database with Oracle 11.0 Financials. Tape device is HP DLT 7000 1/15. du -ks output is around 38-39Gig. Currently, I have scripts set up in cron that (1) take production Oracle down (stop concurrent managers and the database), (2) depending on the day of the week, load a DLT into the drive, (3) run fbackup of all production Oracle files, (4) put the DLT back, (5) start Oracle up. Monday through Friday nights, this process is done. It takes about 40 minutes to run. I have another set of scripts that run on Saturday morning that bring all of our Oracle databases down, load a tape from slot 15, run fbackup on all mount points (system and Oracle), and then bring Oracle up. This weekly (full, a.k.a. Disaster Recovery) backup process takes about three hours. Monday morning, an operator replaces the DLT from slot 15 with the next "Disaster Recovery" DLT, and the one removed is sent off site (we use several tapes for this rotation). There is some manual tracking of the DLTs on my part. Management purchased OmniBack when they bought the K460 and HP-UX, but I have never taken the opportunity to set it up; fbackup seemed so much simpler at the time. I have looked in the OmniBack manuals and have also seen some interesting items on the forums about Oracle and OmniBack. I have used my production backup to create (and recreate) another Oracle instance, so I feel pretty confident that the backups are working. Now to the question: Can anybody give me any good reasons why I should mess with OmniBack? Management wants to know why I'm not using something they bought. ("If it ain't broke, don't fix it." comes to mind.) Thank you for your input.

[Antoanetta Naghiu]

Usualy, every one scan the wole HP-UX Forum.
If you wnat to duplicate your question I guess is better to post it under Networking and OpenView, under Open View Application. Omniback is falling under OpenView Applications.

[Anthony Goonetilleke]

There are a lot more issues to the question..
You bring up a good point "If it aint broke dont fix it" but here are some additional features you will get with OBII:

- load balancing
- Scalability would be a good reason, if you want control over several servers i.e NT, Sun, AIX, HPUX etc all from one single point of easy managebility
- Many more options for backing up and recovering data i.e number of concurrent agents, media expiry etc to name a few.
- Very sophisticated media management
- Integration with Oracle/EMC/SAP etc
- Online backup of Oracle
- Integration with ITO

and last but not east on the even that you get hit by a bus oneday someone else can step in and take over without having to understand the concoction of home grown scripts

[Stefan Farrelly]

Anthony is dead right. If youve already paid for Omniback then you might as well use it. Its very easy to use and all graphical based so any operator will pick it up quickly. And if/when you leave your replacement will be able to easily pick it up, whereas your scripts will be a lot harder for someone to get their head around. Ive been 10 months in my current job and im still finding mega complicated undocumented scripts written by the previous admin, its a nightmare trying to sort them all out.

[Vince Arends]

Thank you for your insight. I will be posting any further updates to the Database Forum.