hot backup

Here’s a revised version of an old popular article I wrote over ten years ago.  I wrote this when I was at Amazon.com, long before I came to work at remote DBA provider Blue Gecko. Enjoy!

Oracle’s pre-RMAN hot backup mode is the subject of one of the most pervasive and persistent misconceptions about Oracle.

During an Oracle tablespace hot backup, you (or your script) puts a tablespace into backup mode, then copies the datafiles to disk or tape, then takes the tablespace out of backup mode. These steps are widely understood by most DBAs.