Backup Plan

General Backup and Recovery Operations

The ability to maintain a consistent set of data is probably the most important part of a Database Administrator's job. In the event of a system failure, the need for data recovery becomes a top priority. Without a backup procedure in place, the ability to restore data to a consistent state is severely hindered or even impossible. The purpose of this discussion is to outline the backup and recovery procedures to be used by an Organization with regards to the Oracle databases that are directly supported by Technical Services and all related operating system files. Below are detailed instructions on how the backups should be performed to achieve a variety of successful recovery scenarios.

General assumptions

• Oracle DBAs Will be fully responsible for the following:
  • Defining backup times in the backup cycle
  • Maintaining any scripts required to perform database backups and restores
  • In the event of needed recovery operations, the Database Administrators will work closely with the NT and UNIX administrators to restore the appropriate datafiles and executables to the appropriate locations on the desired systems

• UNIX Administrator Will be fully responsible for the following:
  • Any configurations regarding enterprise backup software and hardware on the UNIX backup server
  • Maintaining the backup schedules for the UNIX O/S and related files

• Windows Administrator Will be fully responsible for the following:
  • Any configurations regarding enterprise backup software and hardware on the NT backup server
  • Maintaining the backup schedules for the NT O/S and related files

• UNIX/Windows operators Will be fully responsible for the following:
  • Arranging the transportation of tape media to and from offsite storage facilities, adhering to the specified retention policies herein.

• The following rules apply globally:
  • When referring to backup schedules and retention policies, this document assumes these actions are performed against both the database files and any related executables or scripts necessary to restore the database from media failure. These include the following:
    • The entire $ORACLE_BASE directory structure.
    • The entire /home directory structure
    • /etc/oratab
    • /usr/lbin files: oraenv, dbhome, coraenv
    • All Oracle database related files specified in DBA backup scripts
  • The backup/recovery procedures listed herein are based upon Organizations current uptime requirements of 6x24

Backup schedules

Below is an illustration of a typical two week backup cycle using the backup schedules noted above. This backup cycle ensures that in the event of media failure the worst case scenario would be to lose 24 hours worth of data.