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Common Features of BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVELocate this document in the navigation structure

Use

This section describes the common features of BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE. You can call these tools as follows:

BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE do not use a graphical user interface in a UNIX environment. You can run them in any UNIX window and under any shell.

Both programs use standard commands for backing up the relevant files on a volume:

  • cpio or dd for backup to tape, cp or dd for backup to disk if you are working with file systems.

  • dd for backup of raw devices on tape or disk

You must configure BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE, using the parameters in the initialization profile init<DBSID>.sap.

The default configurations of both programs often require online user interaction. You can also run the programs without interaction, as described in Unattended Backup.

  • BRBACKUP saves database objects as follows:

    • Data files of the database

    • Control file

    • Online redo log files

    You can also use BRBACKUP to back up non-database files and directories. See Backing Up Non-Database Files and Directories.

  • BRARCHIVE normally backs up the offline redo logs (that is, the online redo logs that Oracle backs up in the archiving directory) to tape. It is also possible to back up the offline redo log files to disk for special purposes.

  • BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE also back up the following files to the volume (when database objects or offline redo log files are backed up) or to the directory named in backup_root_dir for a backup of database files to disk:

    • A copy of profile init<DBSID>.ora, spfile<DBSID>.ora

    • A copy of profile init<DBSID>.sap

    • The detail BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE log

    • The summary BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE log

    • The summary BRSPACE log space<DBSID>.log, database structure change log struc<DBSID>.log, and database parameter change log param<DBISD>.log.

    The logs are saved on every volume (for example, tape) used for the backup. As a result, you can still determine the contents of the volume, even when the database and file system logs from BRBACKUP or BRARCHIVE have been lost.

  • BRCONNECT monitors the database during a BRBACKUP process. BRTOOLS is called internally by BRBACKUP and BRRACHIVE. You cannot call BRTOOLS directly yourself for the internal functions.