How do you perform a Hot Backup

Backup and Recovery Tips

How do you perform a Hot Backup?

First, take a binary backup of your Control File. Issue the SQL command:
ALTER DATABASE BACKUP CONTROLFILE TO

/BACKUPS/CONTROL01.BKP;

replacing the directory and file name there with something appropriate for your environment. Note that this generates a single binary image of the Control File which is guaranteed to be consistent (and hence usable), regardless of whether the database is actually using multiple mirrored Control Files. Next, move on to the Data Files. First determine what tablespaces exist which need backing up:
SELECT TABLESPACE_NAME FROM DBA_TABLESPACES WHERE STATUS<>READ AND

ONLY CONTENTS<>TEMPORARY;

Note here that were not interested in backing up read-only tablespaces (they do need to be backed up at some point, but having once been backed up, they neednt be included in a regular backup strategy unless their read-only status changes). Were also not interested in backing up proper temporary tablespaces, since by definition- they contain nothing that is worth backing up. Now, working through that list one tablespace at a time, issue the following commands: name BEGIN BACKUP; HOST COPY \BLAH\NAME.DBF \BACKUPS\NAME.DBF ALTER TABLESPACE name END BACKUP; ALTER SYSTEM CHECKPOINT;
ALTER TABLESPACE

In other words, put the entire tablespace into hot backup mode, then copy all the Data Files associated with that tablespace to the appropriate backup directory. When all copies are complete, take the tablespace out of hot backup mode. As each tablespace comes out of hot backup mode, we issue a checkpoint request, to force its header SCN back into synchronisation with the rest of the database. When one tablespace has been backed up in this way, move on to the next and do the same sequence: begin backup - copy the Data Files end backup. Its important to take it one tablespace at a time, because placing a tablespace into hot backup mode means switching on block-sized redo for all transactions affecting that tablespace. That means placing the entire set of tablespaces into hot backup mode, and then copying all Data Files would be an extremely bad idea! Instead, this technique keeps the flood of block-level redo that is about to be generated to an absolute minimum.
Copyright Howard Rogers 2001 20/10/2001 Page 1 of 2

How do you perform a Hot Backup

Backup and Recovery Tips

When all tablespaces have been backed up, issue the command:
ALTER SYSTEM SWITCH LOG FILE;

That will force a log switch, and thus force the archiving of the last possible bit of online redo. Whilst that archiving is taking place, we can begin copying all the other, preexisting, archives:
SET TRIMSPOOL ON SET TERMOUT OFF SET PAGESIZE SET ECHO OFF SET VERIFY OFF SET FEEDBACK OFF SPOOL ARCHIVECOPY SELECT

SET HEADING OFF

HOST

COPY

||

NAME

|| \BACKUPS

FROM V$ARCHIVED_LOG ORDER BY SEQUENCE#;

SPOOL OFF

@ARCHIVECOPY.LST that produces a script (and then runs it) which copies all archives listed in the view, in the order in which they were generated. The v$archived_log view only records new archives when they have been successfully completed, so using that as the basis of the copy should ensure that you dont inadvertently try and copy the last archive (the one generated as a result of the earlier switch logfile command) whilst it is still being written to. It might conceivably mean, however, that the last archive doesnt get backed up at all so dont be too eager about deleting the last archive from its live location after the backup has finished. In case its not obvious, this script works on NT only, because of the host copy stuff: if you were adapting this for Unix, youd obviously use host cp instead and make sure that capitalisation was correct. Thats the basic procedure, anyway. You ought to finish the whole thing off by running dbverify against all the copied Data Files, and making sure that there is no corruption in the copies (see my tip on How can I check that my backups are "clean" and free from corruption? for details).

Copyright Howard Rogers 2001

20/10/2001

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