Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 4-1.
(
continued
)
Decision Point
Recommendation
8. Backing up archive redo logs
Depends on your business requirements. For many environments, I back up
the archive redo logs on a daily basis, with the same command I use to back
up the database.
9. Determining the location
for the snapshot control file
Use the default location.
10. Using a recovery catalog
Depends on your business requirements. For many environments, I don't
use a recovery catalog. Oracle recommends that you do use a recovery
catalog. If the RMAN retention policy is greater than
CONTROL_FILE_RECORD_
KEEP_TIME
, then I recommend that you use a recovery catalog.
11. Using a media manager
This is required for backing up directly to tape.
12. Setting the
CONTROL_FILE_RECORD_KEEP_TIME
initialization parameter
Usually, the default of 7 days is sufficient.
13. Configuring RMAN's
backup retention policy
Depends on your database and business requirements. For many
environments, I use a backup retention redundancy of 1 or 2.
14. Configuring the archive
redo logs' deletion policy
Depends on your database and business requirements. In many scenarios,
applying the backup retention policy to the archive redo logs is sufficient
(this is the default behavior).
15. Setting the
degree of parallelism
Depends on the available hardware resources and business requirements.
For most production servers, on which there are multiple CPUs, I configure
a degree of parallelism of 2 or more.
16. Using backup sets
or image copies
I prefer backup sets. Backup sets are generally smaller than image copies
and easier to manage.
17. Using
incremental backups
Use incremental backups for large databases when a small percentage of the
database changes between backups and when you want to conserve on disk
space. I often use incremental backups in data warehouse-type databases.
18. Using incrementally
updated backups
Use this approach if you require image copies of data files.
19. Using block change tracking
Use this to improve the performance of incremental backups. For large, data
warehouse-type databases, block change tracking can result in significant
time savings for backups.
20. Configuring
binary compression
Depends on your business requirements. Compressed backups consume
less space but require more CPU resources (and time) for backup and
restore operations.
21. Configuring encryption
Depends on your business requirements.
22. Configuring
miscellaneous settings
You can set many channel-related properties, such as the backup set size
and backup piece size. Configure as needed.
Configure the OS variable
NLS_DATE_FORMAT
to display date and time. Use
SET ECHO ON
and
SHOW ALL
to display RMAN commands and settings.
23. Configuring
informational output
