Re: Alternative Tape Backup Software

On 26 Jan 2006 11:40:02 -0800, "GeoPappas" <PappasG_at_gmail.com> wrote:

><< RMAN to disk, let some slow tape backup program chew disk to tape.
>>>
>
>He never mentioned the "to tape" part, so I was replying to saving a
>backup to disk ONLY. Besides, you need LOTS more disk space
>(especially with a large database) to save to disk and then tape. Why
>not just go directly to tape???

In this specific case it was impossible to call the tape library from RMAN. Or it was only possibly to call the tape library from RMAN (Backup Exec) but you lost the backup GUI (and the option to catalogue tapes). So by backing up to disk, you had at least the full functionality of the backup tool.
Apart from that, when disaster strikes, (of course the backup is not on any disk with database files), and in this particular case being dependent from a different department to load the tape, restoring from disk is much faster.
Also in most cases we do remote maintenance, and we can't depend on someone going on his motorcycle in the midst of the night to a serverroom to load a tape.
So that's why not just go directly to tape. There are many valid reasons for that.

--
Sybrand Bakker, Senior Oracle DBA