Before you make your first backups, you must consider carefully what backup methods are most suitable for your needs and the conditions in your system. Carefully read the various sources of information available to the database administrator.

Consider the following in detail:

• Which processes you want to start manually and which you want to run automatically: Read about the options under:
  Computing Center Management System
  Unattended Backups
  Scratch Volumes
  Automatic Volume Management.
• In which mode you want to make the backup and how much time you want to schedule for it: Read the following:
  Online Mode and Offline Mode
  Duration of the Backup
  and time-saving methods such as Parallel Backup.
• What you want to back up and how often: Read about the following options
  Complete Backups
  Incremental Backups
  Backup Strategies with RMAN
  Backing Up Executable Programs and Other Components of the R/3 System
  Backing Up Data Tablespaces.
• When you want your database to be in which status: Read about the following
  Consistent Online Backup
  Structure-Retaining Database Copy.
• Which media you want to use: Read about:
  Backup Media
  Volume Management
  Tape Devices with Hardware Compression.
• How much data security you want to have: Read about the following configurations:
  Standby Databases
  Split Mirror Disks
  Backup Verifications.