Unix Backup and Recovery

Chapter 15. Oracle Backup & Recovery

Historically, Oracle did not have a standalone backup utility like Informix’s ontape or Sybase’s dump, opting instead for commands that allow the DBA to use any backup utility. Oracle7 introduced the EBU, or Enterprise Backup Utility, but it is designed to work only with other commercial backup utilities.^[75] Oracle8 introduced the Recovery Manager (rman ), which also is designed to work with commercial backup utilities, and added a lot more functionality. Environments without a commercial utility must use backup scripts of some kind. This method is certainly the least user-friendly and most difficult to learn if one is new to Oracle and scripting, but its design also allows for the greatest flexibility during both backup and restore. This complexity, of course, requires a bit more explanation, which is what this chapter is about.

Tip

This chapter will use the Oracle8 command svrmgr for interfacing with Oracle databases. If you are running Oracle7, the command is sqldba.

Oracle Architecture

As mentioned in Chapter 13, it is important to understand the design of the database that is being backed up. Therefore, this chapter starts with a discussion of Oracle architecture. Similar information is provided in Chapter 13, but this chapter concentrates on information specific to Oracle. Just as in Chapter 13, we start with the power user’s view of the database, then continue with that of the database administrator. This chapter uses Oracle-specific ...