Here is the original question followed by the summary. Original question:
>
> I am interested in your experience with 7x24 systems (i.e. with NO
> scheduled down-time every week) as in how do you do DB backups when
> you can not bring the system down or even bring a DB into quiescent
> no-activity mode.
> My intended configuration is with the latest Oracle DB with raw DB
> partitions on a SPARCcenter 2000 but I will entertain other
> configurations. I will summarize. Thanks.
The summary includes a) feature in the DBMS itself, and b) special
pseudo device driver packages like Online Disksuite:
1. Oracle (v6 and up) has a "hot backup" feature.
2. Informix Online (v5.01) supports "hot backup" with the dbspace
archives while activity goes into the logical logs.
3. Sybase System 10 has a replicated server that supports "hot backup".
4. Mirror the DB partition with products like Online Disksuite, then
temporarily break the mirror to back up the detached partition.
(ed. - we had considered this option but a) it leaves a window
of vulnerability, and b) someone on my project told me it takes
hours to back up our DB and hours to re-sync the mirrors again.
We have a 20-30 Gb DB when not mirrored.)
5. AFS filesystem from Transarc has checkpointing that allows for on-line
backups. (ed. - not sure if AFS supports raw partitions.)
Contact Transarc Corp. 412-338-4400.
6. Delta Microsystems has a pseudo device driver product called
FreezeFrame that uses another partition as a cache of only the
changed disk blocks. This works on raw partitions too.
Contact Delta Microsystems 510-449-6881.
7. Minimus Software also has a pseudo device driver product called Snap
that does something very similar to FreezeFrame. Contact
lr@minimus.com.
8. Run backup on an active system. (ed. - not an option for us.)
Thanks to all who responded:
guinness.ericsson.se!dsnmkey (Martin Kelly - Unix Specialist)
eng.clemson.edu!Bo.Slaughter (Bo Slaughter)
hydro.on.ca!rob.e.allan (Rob Allan)
uunet!drug!hana!yt ('Yoshiro Mizuno')
ccrl.nj.nec.com!ems (Ed Strong)
"Paul E. Begley" <scdipc0.ueci.com!peb>
ma.pdc.com!larry (Larry Freeman)
vest.sdata.no!birger (Birger A. Wathne)
mr.med.ge.com!farrell (Brian Farrell 4-6531)
halsp.hitachi.com!ljm (Larry J. Miller)
quasar.ucar.EDU!miker (Mike Reetz)
yac.llnl.gov!tom
BCAA.BC.CA!mattb (Matt Binnie)
uprc.com!z85030 (Slezak)
z022102@typhoon (Doug Dalrymple)
David C. Kwong
dck@mink.att.com
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