Re: Oldest Archive Log needed

On Dec 28, 3:22 pm, zipRobe..._at_gmail.com wrote:
> On Dec 28, 5:30 pm, "fitzjarr..._at_cox.net" <fitzjarr..._at_cox.net> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Dec 28, 4:09 pm, zipRobe..._at_gmail.com wrote:
>
> > > I have an oracle 10g database in archivelog mode.  It runs for a few
> > > days generating archive log files and I do a hot backup, a few more
> > > days go by and I do another backup.
>
> > > Assuming the last two backups are good and I only need the last one
> > > how do I determine the oldest archive log to keep so I can delete the
> > > old ones not needed for the most recent backup.
>
> > > Thanks.
>
> > You use RMAN to backup the database and the archivelogs and stop
> > worrying about which ones to keep.
>
> > David Fitzjarrell
>
> Thank you for your reply, while RMAN can do the management of the work
> I would like to know what is the oldest archive log necessary to keep
> for the most current backup so I can use an alternative besides RMAN

In addition to what Ed said, RMAN is more intelligent about how to copy blocks, and so generates much less unnecessary stuff than placing tablespaces in backup mode - see fractured or split blocks in the docs. There are also more things that can go wrong if you roll your own, particularly if you have people of varying cluelessness touching things. The latter can result in questions like "why is this recovery asking for archived logs many months old?"

There might be some value if you want to do stuff like create a tape for a bare metal machine to be bought up as fast as possible (so little or no recovery, and you don't have mirrors to split), but aside from that, RMAN is the way to go, and has been for at least a couple of major releases. I'd be interested in the rationalizations for not using it.

jg

--
@home.com is bogus.
Bela Lugosi's dead.