Re: Help with hot backups

"Chuck Lucas" <chuck.lucas_at_mspbNOSPAM.gov> wrote in message news:<c8ato3$p6p$1_at_ngspool-d02.news.aol.com>...
> I've been charged with taking hot backups of our database. It's Oracle
> 8.1.7 on Solaris 8 (sparc).
>
> I've come up with a RMAN script, but I'm not sure where to tell Oracle to
> "archive log current". Below is the current script.
>
> run {
> allocate channel tape1 type 'sbt_tape';
> backup
> format '%d_%u_%s_%p_%t'
> (database);
> sql 'alter system archive log current';
> backup
> format '%d_%u_%s_%p_%t'
> (archivelog all delete input);
> release channel tape1;
> }
>
> After reading the documentation, it stated placing the "archive log current"
> after the database backup, to ensure the "backup information" is included in
> the redo (archive) logs. But, I'm thinking placing it there, won't give
> enough time for the archive process to archive the log before RMAN actually
> starts working on the archive logs. I thought about moving the "archive log
> current" statement to BEFORE the database backup (which should give it
> enough time to archive), but then I'm afraid I won't get everything in the
> current redo log. Or maybe I should put the statement in BOTH places, to
> make sure I get everything?
>
> Really appreciate any assistance anyone could offer on this.

Metalink also has a number of discussions and notes, see http://metalink.oracle.com/metalink/plsql/ml2_documents.showDocument?p_database_id=NOT&p_id=155656.1 among others.

There are bugs/misfeatures in the way this works in 8i, you need to keep some range of logs before and after the backup anyways. You definitely want to do the one after the db backup to be sure checkpoint_change# in v$database is updated properly. An additional one before couldn't hurt, and some people recommend it, since it waits for the archiving to occur (as opposed to the alter system switch logfile command, which doesn't wait around before returning control).

jg

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