Q:Copy production database to Q/A or test environment

Hi ,  

I've a requirement to develop a process to copy production database (3Tb and above) at customer site to QA or test environment (Vendor side).  

The requirements are :
* Database structures - This include tables,indexes , code
(package,trigger ...) , views ...(select count(*) from DBA_objects = 150,000 )
* Data of main configurations tables. (total size of all tables is
less then 200M).    

This copy is done in order to investigate problem in customer sites and to verify that patches which will be release , will run well.  

I'm thinking on two ways to developer such process :

1. Full exp without data + A list of tables to export with data. Zipped those files , transfer them to vendor site , import those files into a clean database.
2. Take a hot backup of system and undo tablespaces and the configurations tablespace (let's assume that all the configurations tables are in the same tablespace).Zipped those files , transfer them to vendor site , create a new instance , recover and open the database

What do you think it , it's the best way to go ? Please note that this process should be done with minimal DBA resource in the process. (DBA is a rare resource :) )  

Amihay Gonen
DBA,
972-3-9268280

Be there ... -> http://golan/Forum%20DBA/default.aspx <http://golan/Forum%20DBA/default.aspx>  

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