How to take up Oracle Backup?

[cheery_poori]

Hello..,

I am developing an application using VB as front end and Oracle8i as backend..I am not able to do the Backup and restore part..How can i take the Oracle Database backup?It's urgent..could anybody help me please..

Thanks in advance,
Poornima.

[waitecj]

The preference is always to use RMAN for online backups whereever possible. However, if you can afford the down time, just shut the database down and copy all the datafiles\controlfiles\archivelogs to some other storage device.

[oracli]

as an application developer maybe you will prefer to do an export of the database and if you need to restorer the data you can do import after that.

You use imp and exp utilities, or the expdp and impdp in Oracle 10g.

[davey23uk]

as an application developer maybe you will prefer to do an export of the database and if you need to restorer the data you can do import after that.

You use imp and exp utilities, or the expdp and impdp in Oracle 10g.

they arent backup methods, very bad advice

[graham_o]

Davey,

I think you should be a bit clearer, you make it sound like waitecj's post is also bad advice. When I'm guessing you're just talking about oracli's.

[oracli]

they arent backup methods, very bad advice

for a developer database a import/export is a good backup method. You can separately import tables as needed. It provides convinience. You can make separate exports on separte tables/schemas after some changes in the application and can import only those if needed. If you need a image copy of the database the best is to do a backup using Recover Manager (rman).

[davey23uk]

as i said, an export is not a backup method and its bad advice, you will lose data with it - doesnt matter if he is a developer a dba, a cleaner or the CEO's love child a backup needs to be a proper one

[graham_o]

Oracli,

cheery_poori asked how to do a backup. Exp/imp is not a backup method, I'm not saying it doesn't have it's uses, but it isn't a valid backup method. Rather than arguing with Davey follow this http://asktom.oracle.com/pls/ask/f?p...D:832427034486
and search for

'do not even remotely consider use EXP as a "backup" tool'

I think you can guess who said it from the link.

[oracli]

I know it is not a proper "backup" for a production database, I recommended it to cheery_poori as he is obviously not experienced with the Oracle database as a DBA, and the database he is using is for development, so if he uses a rman ora pure copy of datafiles/redos/controlfiles he might make a mistake and not be able to restore/recover the database at all (knowing many developers treat the DB as a black box). I still say exp/imp is a better solution for this situation.

The things are nto always black and white. If cheery_poori sais he needs a backup maybe someone should first asked him what kind of backup does he like and from what situation to be able to recover, what options does he have for backuing up does he even have a separete storage where he would do a backup or he will use a tape so he will need a media manager for RMAN.

Sometimes there are "custimzed" solutions to problems.

[davey23uk]

AN EXPORT IS NOT A BACKUP!!! get it? never has and never will be, it is a tool for moving data between databases

if you use export, you will lose data - any solution that means you lose data is by definition not a backup!!!!

Sooner everyone realises that the sooner people like him stop coming back saying i've lost my data, can i recover from an export without losing data