Originally posted by grjohnson
Originally posted by marist89
Oh, and export/import is NOT a valid backup plan for a production database.
Unless you have two 24 x 7 databases running in parallel in NOARCHIVELOG mode on two different machines in two different states, using failover.
I especially disagree with running a production database (with data changes) in NOARCHIVELOG mode. Basically, you are relying on the fact that you will never have to recover because you have a failover server. Personally, I'm not confident enough of any technology to limit me to only one way out of a disaster.

If you ever have to recover your database, you will have to do it to the last valid export. If your last valid export is 23 hours old, you have lost a day's worth of data. Let alone if Oracle has a bug in the export or import program.