Newbie backup question

I am mainly an application developer, but I've been tossed onto a project that needs a quick solution for backup. We have no "real" DBA, just me as a "de facto" DBA.

The project uses Oracle V8.1.6 as an imbedded database, so it needs to run almost entirely unattended and 24x7. The database is relatively small and is configured to run in NOARCHIVE mode.

But the users of the system do want to be able to frequently run a script that takes a full backup of the database. If the system incurrs a media crash, then the users would run a script for a restore from the backup. Loss of data from the time of backup to the time of restore is NOT an issue.

I've read the Oracle8i Backup and Recovery Guide a couple of times, and I am confused with all of the options available. I think my requirements are fairly simple and all of these ARCHIVE/NOARCHIVE, consistent/inconsistent, complete/incomplete decisions really blur the picture.

I know the above scenario is less than optimal, but I have to play with the cards I have been delt. We plan to have a robust backup/recovery process in the next version of our system (promise <g>).

Later,
BEDick Received on Fri Mar 09 2001 - 08:52:19 CST