Time required for export/import vs. "copying tables"

Let me preclude this post by saying that I am not a DBA but rather an application developer.

Can someone please comment on the use of export/import vs. "copying tables" for transferring data from one instance to another? We currently have three instances of Oracle (development, test, and production) that we need to keep relatively in sync on a periodic basis
(e.g. once a week replicate the data from production to test and
development).

In my opinion, these databases are quite small -- around 5 GB -- but our DBAs insist that it takes about 4-6 hours to replicate the production data into another instance. I realize that the test and development servers may not be running on state of the art equipment
(Sparc 10's) but 4-6 hours for 5 GB of data just seems absurd.

I was also told that the preferred process is to "copy the tables"
(which I am assuming means to run an INSERT operation using a database
link) rather than performing an export/import. Doesn't it seem logical that an export/import would be significantly faster?

Could someone please provide a time estimate for replicating 5 GB of data from one Oracle instance to another? I understand that the time will vary widely on the hardware, but I just need a ballpark figure.

Thanks,

Jeremy Jameson

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Before you buy. Received on Mon Jan 10 2000 - 12:09:54 CST