I need to do some structural changes to a database (alter tables, add new columns, change some rows etc) but I need to make sure that if something goes wrong i can rollback to initial state:
- All needed changes are inside a SQL script file.
- I don’t have administrative access to database.
- I really need to ensure the backup is done on server side since the BD has more than 30 GB of data.
- I need to use sqlplus (under a ssh dedicated session over a vpn)
- Its not possible to use ‘flashback database’! It’s off and i can’t stop the database.
Am i in really deep $#$%?
Any ideas how to backup the database using sqlplus and leaving the backup on db server?
better than exp/imp, you should use rman. it’s built specifically for this purpose, it can do hot backup/restore and if you completely screw up, you’re still OK.
One ‘gotcha’ is that you have to backup the $ORACLE_HOME directory too (in my experience) because you need that locally stored information to recover the control files.
a search of rman on google gives some VERY good information on the first page.