Database Blog


  • Test Your Disaster Recovery Strategies before Disaster Strikes

    Mar 20, 2020

    Reading Time: 2 minutes As the old saying goes, “It’s better to be safe than sorry,” and testing your disaster recovery data is essential to keeping you and your data safe!

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  • Donuts and Data Backups

    Oct 3, 2019

    Reading Time: 2 minutes This is the story of a data loss event that changed my young life and put my feet on the path of becoming a DBA.

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  • Why Your Database Management Team Should Regularly Double-Check Your Backups

    Sep 30, 2019

    Reading Time: 3 minutes I’ve blogged before about the importance of checking database backups. Over 90% of new clients that we assess have backups that are either incomplete or totally unusable (true statistic!). The following story of a backup failure that happened recently—and the successful double-check by our DBA Scott)—provides a noteworthy example of how bad backups can happen even when you think your process is working. Recently we had a client that was looking to reduce storage costs…..

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  • A Christmas Backup Tale

    Dec 8, 2017

    Reading Time: 2 minutes Don’t let the Backup Grinch steal Christmas I have written about this topic in the past but it seems that it can never be shared too many times. As we approach the holiday season, we don’t want to be recovering data when we should be spending precious time with family and friends. So I will share another cautionary tale about how what we don’t know can hurt us. And how we can improve the chances of an uninterrupted holiday…..

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  • Tales of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning

    Oct 2, 2017

    Reading Time: < 1 minute Planning for Disaster As we think about the enormous cleanup effort taking place in the wake of Harvey, Irma, and Maria, we are reminded of the importance of planning to keep your business up and running when disaster strikes.  In this blog post I share the thoughts of an expert in the field of Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery. I recently had an interesting and fun conversation with Bob Cohen,  Business Continuity and Disaster…..

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  • Database Backups and Gasoline Leaks

    Sep 5, 2017

    Reading Time: 3 minutes How is a database backup like a portable generator with a gasoline leak? And why should you care on a beautiful sunny September morning? How does any of this relate to Business Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity planning and testing?  Read On! Lack of Preparation Until Superstorm Sandy in 2012, we had lived in our NJ town for 25 years without ever having a power outage for more than a few minutes. I thought it would never happen,…..

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  • Architect Your Oracle Database for Efficient Backup and Recovery

    Aug 3, 2017

    Reading Time: 4 minutes Architecting for Backup and Recovery Efficiency with Oracle RMAN Database architecture is critical to achieving many business objectives. These include application performance, business continuity, security, and geographic distribution.  This article will explore another often overlooked objective that can be influenced by the database architecture: backup and recovery efficiency. Very large databases are common in today’s business environment. Multi-terabyte databases are prevalent in all but the smallest organizations. Despite these large sizes, we tend to find that…..

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  • Duplicating and Recovering Oracle Databases with RMAN

    Jul 5, 2017

    Reading Time: 5 minutes Oracle Recovery Manager Purpose and History Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) was developed essentially as a way to more effectively backup and recover Oracle databases, as an automation mechanism for the same, and as a way to keep track of and managing backup sets. It was introduced in version 8 of the Oracle database, so it has been around for quite a while. In addition to managing backups, it includes other functionality that helps with managing…..

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  • Time to Validate Your Database Backup

    Jul 8, 2016

    Reading Time: 2 minutes Another new client, Another bad backup I originally wrote this post in July but I am updating it today because it is so important.  Yesterday we did an initial Oracle Database Health Check for another new client and found yet again that their backups are useless. This time the client was taking backups regularly, but was not preparing the database first and was just copying the database files. Unfortunately this renders the backup useless. Here…..

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  • Architecting to Maximize Recovery Options in Oracle

    Apr 21, 2016

    Reading Time: 2 minutes I recently received a frantic call from a client that believed they have been hacked and had to quickly recover data. They said that data belonging to two or more of their customers had been lost. Our customer functions essentially as an application service provider (ASP). Their customers’ data is in an Oracle database that our client manages. Our client organizes this database such that each of its customers’ applications is served by a separate…..

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