RE: RMAN Backup to tape or disk (SAN) ???

The beauty of RMAN working with an MML is that it knows how to get what's needed for a restore. If you're staging to disk then you have to be able to figure that out in short order and possibly while under duress. If you're going the disk staging route be sure to develop and practice every conceivable recover scenario. I would document each recovery scenario so that when (not if) you're in a recovery situation you'll know how to proceed. (Of course you should practice recovery regardless of your setup.) Staging to disk may require a "double recovery" where you have to recover backup files from tape to disk then recover the database from the backup files.

> What amount of $$ is 'horribly expensive"?
Losing data is more expensive. Ask damagement if data loss is acceptable and if it's okay to take risks on backups. If damagement wants to take shortcuts on the backups then confirm their decisions by memo from you to them outlining everything. Keep a copy of that memo. And it would hurt to let damagement know that you're keeping a "correspondence folder." ;-)

IMHO...
Steve Orr
Bozeman, Montana

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 7:52 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

Jared,
Veritas told us that an Oracle Agent is about 8000 Euros (1 Euro = $1.10 US) and we would need nine of them. This would buy us quite a few disks. We are thinking about making the "backup disk" so big that it can hold at least two weeks worth of backups. Anything older will be moved to tape. Does that sound reasonable? Thanks,
Helmut

> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: Jared Still [mailto:jkstill_at_cybcon.com]
> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 7. Mai 2003 02:21
> An: ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com; Daiminger, Helmut
> Betreff: Re: RMAN Backup to tape or disk (SAN) ???
>
>
>
> Helmut,
>
> What amount of $$ is 'horribly expensive"?
>
> The Oracle Agent for Veritas is about $2500 per
> server if I recall correctly. They don't give it away,
> but it isn't *that* much.
>
> Someone else said that there SA could buy a lot of
> disk for the price of the agent. In a SAN, $2500 will
> generally buy you about 2.5 disks.
>
> Personally, I dislike backing up to disk. That creates
> a logical disconnect between RMAN and the Veritas
> backup catalog.
>
> ie. You can't then just tell RMAN to restore your database
> to anytime other than what is on the backup disks. If the
> backup files are lost/damaged, you must be certain to restore
> all of the files needed Oracle files from tape to disk, then
> do your recovery.
>
> Jared
>
> On Tuesday 06 May 2003 05:25, Daiminger, Helmut wrote:
> > Hi!
> >
> > We are about to redesign our backup environment. All Oracle Backups
> > (8i,
> > 9i) are done with RMAN. Now we are unsure whether to have
> RMAN backup to
> > tape or to a specific area on our SAN.
> >
> > Backing up to the SAN (i.e. disk) is an option, since you
> don't need
> > Veritas NetBackup Oracle Agents (which are horribly expensive). We
> > would have RMAN write the backups to disk and then move
> those backups
> > to tape. The disk will be about the size to hold two weeks worth of
> > RMAN backups.
> >
> > Would this make sense? Or is it preferable to backup to tape, no
> > matter what?
> >
> > This is 8i & 9i on Sun Solaris.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Helmut
>
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