Chapter 13. Saving Your Stuff (Backups)

Sooner or later, you'll lose some data in the database. As a user, you may delete some rows in a table that you really didn't want to delete. As a DBA, you may have a server crash or one of the server's hard disks may fail, resulting in loss of data.

Oracle provides a number of tools for both users and DBAs to minimize data loss in these situations. Some of the tools are primarily for use by the DBA; other tools are primarily used by the database user.

This chapter begins with descriptions of the types of failures possible in the database and then discusses the different ways that you can back up and restore data.