Backing Up Oracle - Computing at Cornell

This is how to recover from a log file or simulated incremental backup:
1. Restore the database from a full database backup (in some
circumstances, restoring from a partial backup may be sufficient).
2. Restore the log files.
3. Apply the log files to the restored database.
3.2.9 LAN-free backup
Normally, a database backup has to go over the LAN to the storage
destination and may impact the users or applications using the same LAN.
One way to overcome this problem is to use a dedicated LAN for backup so
that the data transfer will no longer interfere with the work of other users and
applications.
However, even when using a dedicated LAN all the data and metadata (file
permissions, owner...) must still be handled by the application that will receive
the backup data. This application will need resources such as CPU, memory
or disk space to buffer and manage data an metadata. To free the application
from the work needed for handling the backup data itself a LAN-free solution
can be used.
LAN-free means that a group of machines are able to share the same storage
devices over a high performance connection. LAN-free also provides an easy
way of defining storage devices to machines without much cabling effort, as
the devices all communicate over the same high performance connection.
In our context, LAN-free can be used as follows: The clients can send their
backup data files directly to the tape library (LAN-free) and only send the
metadata information on where the file resides to the storage application.
3.2.10 Backup using split mirror features
A backup may potentially degrade the performance of a production system. In a
24x7 environment or with very large databases, it is particularly hard to schedule
a backup such that it will not interfere with the normal operation. In order to free
the production system from the overhead of backup, it is valuable to have a copy
or mirror of the database for backup, reporting, or other purposes.
Some intelligent storage servers, such as IBM ESS, support the split mirror
feature. Split mirror means that identical and independent copies of disk
volumes can be established within those storage servers. These copies can
normally be established in a very short time (a maximum of 5-20 seconds
dependent on vendor).
30 Backing Up Oracle using Tivoli Storage Management