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 celebration.
This past weekend, during a routine health check that we perform for one of our clients, one of our Oracle DBAs found that backups starting failing a few days prior. The client had no idea that there was any problem with the backup.
In this case, the database backup itself was successful, but the ongoing control file and archive log backups failed. Basically this means that in the event of a failure, they would be unable to restore any transactions that happened since the backup. This could result in a major loss of data.
This is another illustration of the critical importance of having a dedicated team whose responsibility it is to check the health of your database and your backups on a regular and frequent basis.
And now with my own special version of a holiday classic (a thousand apologies to Clement Moore), I wish you all healthy databases and consistent backups all through the year!
A Visit from The Buda Team
Twas the night before weeks-end, when all through production
Not a backup was running, there was an obstruction
The schedule had been set, so long ago now
No-one thinks they should check it, its just running somehow
And while you were nestled all snug in your bed
You had no way of knowing your backup was dead
But the Buda Team, ready to check out your logs
Are poised to find out that your system has hogs
Bad programs preventing the backup from storing
But now that we fixed it you can go back to snoring
In the morning we’ll tell you what happened last night
And with one great big sigh you’ll say “So glad we’re alright!”
Happy Holidays!
