I am currently exporting an Oracle7.3 database every 6 hours. The .dmp file is now at 1.87gigs and takes an hour to export. AND, causes a performance hit to my ssystem.

While reviewing my backup and recovery manuals, I noticed that you can set DIRECT=Y on the export t. THis direct path option is suppose to be significantly faster and does not compete with other resources of the Instance.

It also says this is useful for exporting large large datbases.

Can anyone confirm this before I start testing?

thanks