Oracle Parallel Processing

Backing Up an OPS Database

Backing up an OPS database is much the same as backing up a standalone database. There are only a few differences to be aware of. This section presents a brief review of database backup concepts and points out the differences between backing up a standalone instance and backing up an OPS database. We’ll briefly discuss ARCHIVELOG mode, cold and hot backups, and the use of standby databases and the Oracle8 Recovery Manager from an OPS.

ARCHIVELOG Mode

An Oracle database can run in either NOARCHIVELOG mode or ARCHIVELOG mode. In NOARCHIVELOG mode, the redo log files are recycled and overwritten without being saved offline. In ARCHIVELOG mode, the redo log files are archived before they are overwritten. Running in NOARCHIVELOG mode leaves open the possibility of data loss in the event of a failure. Complete and up-to-the-minute recovery from a failure is possible only when running in ARCHIVELOG mode. You must run the database in ARCHIVELOG mode if you want to do any of the following:

• Recover completely from a media failure

• Perform point-in-time recovery

• Perform a hot (online) backup

The following sections describe how to enable ARCHIVELOG mode and set the corresponding initialization parameters.

Setting initialization parameters for ARCHIVELOG mode

To run a parallel server database in ARCHIVELOG mode, set the following three initialization parameters on each instance:

LOG_ARCHIVE_START

Enables automatic archiving. When this parameter is set to TRUE, Oracle will ...