SAN's, snapshots and online backups questions...

Our network admin is looking at various SAN strategy/solutions to implement for our storage need. I think that part of the sales pitch he has been getting is that the "snapshot" technology they employ eliminates the need for any existing oracle backup strategies. I won't go in to much detail, but I'm hearing things like how they can stop a
(data)file from being written to whilst a snapshot is taken, putting the
entire database into backup mode then doing a snapshot, how user response is "less affected" during backup times etc..

I have no intention of changing my current online OS backups, as they are tried, tested & true and have minimal, if any impact on users.
(other than changing over to Rman once I get more used to it) I did say
that if there is no performance impact it may be a good enhancement to my current backup strategy however. But I am curious if anyone else has used this method for cloning etc.. and I am curious if indeed these snapshots do work, how can they be rolled forward once restored, if at all?

I am sitting in on a meeting with another SAN vendor next week, and one of their reps is a very knowlegeable oracle person, so I expect to get some clarity on this issue then, but in the meantime thought some here might like to shed some light or share some experiences in this area.

TIA Received on Fri Jul 18 2003 - 13:31:44 CDT