General Database Recovery Improvements

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Oracle Database 10g comes with a number of new features that are designed to provide enhanced availability and recoverability within the Oracle database. This chapter covers the following topics:

General database recovery improvements

RMAN improvements

New flashback features

New transaction recovery monitoring features

New Data Guard features

Several changes have been made in Oracle Database 10g that relate to backup and recovery:

Easier recovery through the resetlogs command

Changes to the alter database archivelog command

New and changed Oracle Database 10g backup commands

Easier Recovery Through the resetlogs Command

One of the downsides to incomplete recovery of an Oracle database in Oracle Database versions prior to Oracle Database 10g was the requirement to use the resetlogs command when opening the database. Because recovery through resetlogs was not supported in Oracle9i, you needed to perform a backup of the database in order for it to be recoverable, though there were some goofy and complex (and altogether unreliable) means to recover the database through resetlogs prior to Oracle Database 10g. Now, Oracle Database 10g makes recovery through the resetlogs command easier than ever.

The nice thing about being able to recover through the resetlogs command is that there is really nothing new that you have to do, it's all internal to Oracle Database 10g. You can use the recover database, recover tablespace, or recover datafile commands, just as you always have. The RMAN restore and recover database commands are also unchanged, and support the ability to recover beyond the point of the last resetlogs command.