Performing Oracle User-Managed Backups - OCP: Oracle Database 12c Administrator Certified Professional - page 5

Oracle Data Guard Disaster recovery is provided through the Oracle Data Guard product.
Oracle Data Guard makes it possible to duplicate your database to one or more sites and
keep those duplicate databases synchronized with your primary database. When the primary
database site fails, you can switch over operations to one of the Oracle Data Guard data-
bases with minimum or zero data loss. The Oracle OCP exam does not contain any ques-
tions specific to Oracle Data Guard.
Oracle Flashback Database Accidental data corruption and data loss can be rectified through
the use of Oracle Flashback Database. Oracle Flashback Database is a subject of the OCP
exam and is covered in Chapter 8, “Understanding Flashback Technology,” of this topic.
Oracle GoldenGate Data replication is provided through the Oracle GoldenGate product.
This product provides the ability to replicate data between both Oracle databases and non-
Oracle databases. The OCP exam does not have any questions on Oracle GoldenGate.
Understanding the Oracle Database as
It Relates to Backup and Recovery
As a DBA, recovering your database should be important to you. Correspondingly, recov-
ery is also important to Oracle, so the database product has been built to be robust with
respect to backup and recovery. We'll start this chapter with a quick primer on how Oracle
supports backup and recovery. In this section, we'll give you the background you need to
understand backup and recovery and to be successful with your OCP exam. In the follow-
ing sections, we will discuss these topics:
■ Oracle processes related to backup and recovery
■ Oracle memory structures related to backup and recovery
■ The data dictionary
■ Oracle data files and tablespaces
■ Online redo logs
■ Control files
■ Parameter files
■ NOARCHIVELOG and ARCHIVELOG modes
■ The Oracle instance and the Oracle Database
Note this is not the “kitchen sink” when it comes to an Oracle architecture discussion.
We assume you are already somewhat familiar with the Oracle Database architecture (since
to take the OCP exam you must first have completed the OCA certification track, which
consists of two exams), so this is just a review of the pieces of it that are involved in backup
and recovery in some way.