If you’ve got a laptop for home use or for your business and don’t take comprehensive backup for full protection then you are in the danger-zone. Maybe you are doing not take any backup at all. Currently in the subsequent article you may find sorts of backup you’ll be able to make by yourself.

You’ll be able to find in Windows a basic backup utility that are installed throughout the installation.

I ought to say for all Windows…, however after all it’s not included throughout the installation of Windows XP Home Edition.

It is as if Microsoft thinks that data protection isn’t necessary for home computers and computers utilized by tiny businesses.

It’s true that arduous drives are turning into less liable to hard disk crashes.

But, if you think about not only onerous disk crashes, however also virus infection, theft plus alternative treats, then you understand the importance of implementing a full-proof backup strategy for your computer.

Today several computers are equipped with a DVD burner, however most do not use it to manage their very important knowledge backup. The quantity of knowledge you can store on one DVD is several Giga Byte.

There are various varieties of backup you’ll be able to make.

Here are the steps that I take myself to completely secure my knowledge against data loss:

1. Disk image backup.

I take advantage of a disk image backup software and make an entire image backup of the disk on consecutive DVDs.

I additionally create an emergency rescue CD.

If I have a arduous disk crash I’ll use this emergency CD in addition from.

But, initial I’ve got to install and setup a brand new hard disk that is working.

Then I will recreate the info directly back from this backup stored on the DVDs.

This work is created quick and without the necessity to pay time installing each the operation system and also the backup software.

Everything is instead copied directly into the arduous disk from the DVD’s.

2. Full onerous disk backup.

I also use a data backup software and produce a full backup of the hard disk on consecutive DVD’s.

This is often a customary disk backup. With this backup I’m able to revive any files and/or folders.

I will conjointly move the data to another computer.

3. Regular scheduled backup of files and folder.

Here I exploit the same software product I use for the total disk backup. I make with this software regular schedule backups of the files and folders I work with.

In my case they include My Documents, Outlook emails and other files that are changed over time.

I do that by keeping a permanent rewritable DVD within the DVD burner.
I then rotate a variety of DVD’s for this purpose thus I can keep copies off from the computer.
Whenever I install necessary new programs from the Net or I build different major changes to my system I’ll conjointly produce a replacement disk image backup and a full onerous disk backup.
You ought to use a DVD burner that’s designed for rewritable DVDs.
Unfortunately there are many competing DVD standards on the market.
The DVD-R, DVD-R and DVD-RAM standards supports DVDs that only can be written to once and can’t be reused and people standards should be avoided.
The DVD player should instead support a minimum of one rewritable DVDs standard.
Either DVD-RW or DVD+RW.
I you need to backup data to flash drive – you can visit: flash copy backup website.

Conclusion:

I take advantage of regular schedule backup to backup the data files I work with on a daily basis.

I’ll build a disk image backup therefore that in case of a arduous disk failure I can be back in business fast.

I conjointly produce a full disk backup thus that I can be in a position to restore individual files or folders. It makes it also potential to maneuver the information to a different computer.

And don’t forget to computerize some other computer routine: how do you convert avi to mp4 and photo editor watermark.

On TV and in the films, we see a ton of moveable computers being employed in homes and offices. Does that mean that’s the trend? Is that what you ought to get?

Transportable computers price a lot of, thus unless you really have the requirement for one, you get a heap more laptop for your cash with a regular desktop PC. The most thing is portability. If you would like a transportable laptop, get a laptop. (“Laptop,” “portable,” and “notebook” all consult with the same issue, by the approach). Otherwise, a desktop computer may be a better purchase, and better ergonomically.

The Worth Difference

You may surprise why laptops price a lot of than desktop computers with comparable options and power. That’s largely because it’s more expensive to manufacture laptops and their parts. For portable computer parts, factors like compactness, the number of warmth they generate, their weight, and power consumption are a lot of necessary than they are for desktops. Those factors boost their producing costs.

Space Necessities

While laptops are actually compact, a desktop pc with a flat panel monitor will take up nearly as very little space. Whereas referred to as a “desktop” computer, the computer itself is most typically kept on the floor. That leaves just the monitor, keyboard and mouse on the desk, that is very very similar in footprint to a notebook computer.

A nice approach to any cut back the house taken up on the desktop pc is get a keyboard drawer to carry the keyboard and mouse. That approach, they slide out of the means underneath the high of the desk after they aren’t needed.

Be Aware of Ergonomics

Ergonomics is the science of planning and arranging things thus that individuals can interact with them more comfortably and safely. The basic ergonomic principals for pc use tell us that, 1) the keyboard ought to be as shut to your lap level as possible (assuming you touch-type), 2) the monitor should be regarding arm’s length in front of you, and 3) the top of the monitor ought to be at about your eye level. Try achieving that with a laptop pc! 2 words: im-possible.

It is obvious then, that a desktop laptop is a lot of higher ergonomically than a laptop is. For prolonged use, especially, you are abundant higher off with a desktop computer.

And Don’t Forget Usability

Another facet of ergonomics is usability. As a result of of size constraints, laptops additionally are lower on the usability scale than desktop PCs are. For one issue, laptop keyboards lack the separate groupings of the various sets of keys with space between them. For another, there are fewer keys on a laptop’s keyboard, so some of them need to perform double duty. On a normal keyboard, you don’t have to house that.

Screen Resolution

Pc monitors — the bulky ones, anyway — will be set at totally different resolutions. In other words, you can change the fineness of the image on the screen. The range is usually 640×480 — that is 640 pixel across and 480 pixels up and down — to 800×600, 1024×768, or maybe higher. At 640×480, the icons and such appear quite giant; at 1024×768, they are substantially smaller. The most common resolutions nowadays for desktop computers are 800×600 and 1024×768.

Something They Don’t Tell You

Laptop displays, on the other hand, have a fixed, or native, resolution. You’ll be able to change the setting, however then the pictures and text do not look good. Whereas folks tend to assume that bigger numbers are higher, a better screen resolution may not work also for you. It could build everything too tiny to work out comfortably.

Bear in mind, the laptop’s screen is smaller that a desktop’s. Whereas a typical desktop pc screen is seventeen” or therefore a laptop’s is typically within the range of 12″ to 15.” That is a big difference. Make sure you’ll see everything clearly before selecting a high-resolution laptop.

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Laptops will be sent back to the manufacturer if the purchaser finds the screen of the laptop scratched or with a minor blemish, or if it’s an unwanted gift to him or if the packaging of the laptop is dented etc. Such laptops are inspected, tested again for quality and repackaged by the manufacturer and sold for a terribly less price. Such laptops are called as refurbished laptops.

Factory refurbished laptops:

The laptops in the factory endure rechecking for any manufacturing defect by passing through numerous stages of examination. Then, when no fault is found, the onerous disk of the laptop is reformatted and once more the operating system is loaded. It is once more created to work for less than four-5 hours time to check for any defect and therefore the components are replaced if they are found to be defective. The refurbished laptop is then updated with a new serial variety to mark it as a factory refurbished laptop. Such factory refurbished laptops are of top quality available to the buyer at a lesser retail price. Such refurbished laptops will be got from virtually all the renowned brands. But the process dispensed for the restoration of laptops might differ from company to company. The main aim is to make the laptop run once more efficiently because it used to be previously.

Custom refurbished laptops:

These are repaired laptops that are reassembled to match the customer’s preference. It offers an opportunity to get an entire laptop resolution at a very reasonable worth to the customer. The utilities offered by the customer refurbished laptops are got at a price of a second user laptop. It additionally avoids the requirement to upgrade immediately, that isn’t the case with the quality laptop. It allows the customers to possess preferences in terms of choosing the features just like the screen size, processor speed needs, multimedia, memory capability, exhausting drive size, optical drive, graphics, accessories, Bluetooth etc.
When purchased in bulk, custom refurbished laptops are the simplest option as it combines both functionality and worth advantage together. Additional benefits can be availed through promotional offers and discounts from the manufacturers.

Blessings of getting refurbished laptops:

The refurbished laptops are of top quality as they’re checked for top standards of performance at each level of examination done. The buyer can get a branded, quality laptop of a contemporary model at a terribly less value compared to the retail price. A lot of over discounts are offered to military personnel, senior voters and students who can maximize their savings by getting a refurbished laptop. The refurbished laptops can be selected from renowned brands available in the market at a lesser cost. Such refurbished laptops also are got with one year warranty that will be extended up to three years. The warranty amount supports replacement of components and maintenance needed by the laptop. Hence buying such laptops are very reliable. The refurbished model laptops enable the purchasers get a lot of options at a lower cost. When the purchaser is bent on shopping for the latest, trendiest laptop, however cannot afford to shop for a replacement one he can go for a refurbished laptop to induce satisfied.

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1. Observations
You hear clicking sounds emitting from your arduous disk drive, either during a form of clicking or grinding sounds. This will happen after you power up your computer from begin or halfway while operating on your projects.

2. Doable Causes

The irregular clicking or chunking sound typically indicates that your hard drive is littered with physical damage. If you use a S.M.A.R.T enabled disk, you’ll see a warning of a imminent disk failure once you power up your computer. This problem can be caused by the subsequent:
- Head Crash
- Bad Sectors
- Mechanical Faults
- Virtual Memory Paging

3. Resolution
a. Head Crash

This is often a physical damage of the disk platter when the head of a hard disk scratches the surface of the disk. The grinding sound is therefore observed when this occurs. Firstly, flip off your computer and do not attempt to power it up. Consult a knowledge recovery firm immediately and avoid dismantling the disk to repair the matter yourself. Operating without the correct tools and a clean setting will result in more intensive damage which complicates the recovery process.

b. Dangerous Sectors

Typically dangerous sectors are physical damage of a span of disk area. The clicking sound happens when the top attempts to read from the identical area of disk multiple times thanks to failed attempts. This will additionally occur when the pinnacle is unable to calibrate with the media servo tracks thanks to the gradual weakening of the magnetic domains on the platter that causes the drive to reset continuously. If the conditions of the disk is not too bad, a standard method is to perform a disk surface scan. This helps to mark all bad sectors and prevent your system from writing new knowledge on the broken areas of the disk.

c. Mechanical Faults

Sometimes these sounds will be a result of a defective spindle, Scan Write head or loose components. If you are still able to access data on the disk, you are strongly advised to backup all your data immediately. Your disk is close to demise. If your disk stops spinning after a period of clicking sound, you’ll wish to send your disk to a reputable information recovery firm to recover your data.

d. Virtual Memory Paging

When your physical memory is full, the drive may perform numerous virtual memory paging at the same time maintaining the system’s operation. This can lead to excessive disk activity. To accommodate this downside you’ll increase the physical memory by adding additional RAM into your laptop or use a secondary exhausting disk to contain the swap files.

Additional Notes

Exhausting disk drive sometimes produces a whirring sound when it searches for a file that is heavily fragmented. This is often caused by the spinning platters because the scan-write heads zoom forwards and backwards to access the sectors where the information is stored. It is necessary to differentiate the whirling sound from the press sound. This whirring sound will be reduced by periodically defragmenting your laborious drive. Defragmenting reorganizes the scattered data on the arduous drive to create files and programs run faster. It relocates the commonly accessed files to the beginning of the hard disk where data can load at a faster rate.

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Since computers—PCs, laptops and notebooks–have now pervaded the complete ambit of our lives, maintaining all its attachments has also become very important. A printer is one amongst the foremost helpful attachments as it is constantly utilised by the pc users. However, shopping for inkjet cartridges for your printer will be a frightening task. You really have to understand how to decide on the simplest inkjet cartridge therefore that you’re not confused by the various choices.

Some folks get stressed when the ink in their printer cartridge show signs of obtaining over but there’s no need to worry over such issues. Once you visit the market to buy an ink cartridge you should not get lured by low priced products or by any cut price deals that promise a lot of savings. In all chance such low-priced cartridges would be faulty and would hurt your printer. You may pay much more in repair prices than what you would save.

The first step in choosing the most effective inkjet cartridge is to check the existing cartridge in your printer and then attempt to buy a cartridge of similar specifications. If you’re unable to get the identical sort of cartridge in the market you must take the assistance of the following tips:

• The ink of generic cartridges will be harmful to your printer’s nozzles. So you ought to avoid using such cartridges.

• If you would like the best quality of printing you ought to use the ink cartridges created by the identical manufacturer because the printer. Little question, these will be most expensive.

• The warranties of some printer manufacturers are not valid if ink cartridges created by a different manufacturer are used.

• It is advisable to test the page yield of the cartridge that you propose to buy.

The precautions needed to extend the lifetime of the cartridge are: the cartridge should never be allowed to dry up absolutely as this can damage the printer to the extent that it will not be able to print even with a replacement cartridge, if one cartridge is out the other one should not be run to avoid harm to the jets and the cartridge should be shaken from facet to aspect to utilize the balance quantity of ink.

Currently the query is from where will you purchase the inkjet cartridges?

Buying on-line is the simplest place as it is time saving and fewer expensive. If you are doing not have the time to stay running to the shop, spending time in shopping for and then returning back, you can save time by ordering online and also the cartridge will be delivered to your home or office.

Moreover, if you purchase at a store, the ink cartridge will be abundant additional expensive than if you order online as the web vendors provide substantial discounts. Virtually any sort of ink cartridge will be bought online which too at a discount.

If you purchase refilled or recycled ink cartridges either from a store or from a website, you may save some cash however the harm to your printer can prove costlier to repair. As such you should buy solely genuine brands which, too, from a provider or website that offers a guarantee.

You might be ready to avoid wasting regarding sixty percent of the price of an artless ink cartridge if you buy a recycled or refilled cartridge but if you need sensible quality printing it’s best to stick to the identical company that made the printer that you are using.

If you follow the above tips, you will be able to decide on the best cartridge from among the plethora of cartridges available within the market.

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When someone 1st thinks of a printer cartridge, he or she could quickly dismiss it as being just one thing you get when your printer has run out of ink. Knowing specifically how a printer cartridge works and the different aspects of buying one, but, will end up saving someone a ton of money in the long run. Investing in printer cartridges is sometimes not a low-cost factor to try to to, several sell for fifty bucks or a lot of each, and it’s a smart idea to know all your alternatives before creating any hasty decisions.

The printer cartridge works by storing ink within of it to be used by the printer. When the printer sends a cartridge and appropriate signal, the ink is dropped and shaped into the form of the image or letters needed to be translated onto the sheet of paper. It’s vital to note, that two separate cartridges are needed for people who want color on their printed pieces. One cartridge will have only black ink and can only perform throughout black and white printings, whereas the other contains red, yellow, and blue ink and can create different color combinations. The color cartridge is, normally, abundant more expensive then the easy black cartridge, so it is necessary not to waste it. It’s a good plan, thus, to not waste color ink unless it’s fully needed. For instance, printers can someday be set to print everything, together with black and white projects, through the color cartridge. Setting the printer to not do that can save you numerous of money within the future.

Another issue that is necessary to remember concerning printer cartridges is that a lot of of the big-name corporations who conjointly produce printers, like HP, Canon, and Lexmark, will produce cartridges that will work solely with their printers. These cartridges are typically terribly expensive and overpriced. This is because the large companies grasp that almost all of their customers have very little to no choices on alternatives to shop for, which eventually most individuals can pay the extra money for the printer cartridge they need. It’s additionally due to the very fact that a lot of companies like HP will build their printers cheaper to draw in additional customers and regain the loss through printer cartridge sales.

Fortunately for owners of printers, there are other choices turning into available. Brands like Xerox provide cheaper alternatives for printer ink that may work in multiple printers. Because these brands don’t create printers themselves, they have no reason to charge a lot of for ink and therefore will offer everybody a higher alternative. The most effective means to find a good possibility for your printer is to check with a local store to determine what totally different printer cartridges are compatible along with your printer.

There’s no query that a printer cartridge is vital to maintaining a smart printer and producing quality printed work. Knowing all of the options out there to you, but, and practicing good ink maintenance goes a protracted means in saving money for the future.

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There are a number of reason why one would need to buy low-cost used laptops, the main, and most obvious reason being that a new laptop is simply too expensive. If your goal is to find a low cost used laptop, then take some time to do the analysis, and you may be certain to induce a great deal. I will detail five ways that you’ll be able to use to locate the right used laptop that suits your needs, and value range.

One in every of the primary steps in your analysis should be to induce on the Internet and start your search. Your first stop ought to be eBay. Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few years, you already understand that eBay is an auction site where you bid for items. It is also a nice place to search out exhausting to find things like, a chunk of toast with a non secular icon burned into it, or a clip Elvis’s sideburns. However, it is also a great place to search out cheap used equipment, i.e. laptops.

Once on eBay, you’ll do a quick search by typing “used laptop” into the search function. You’re certain to find tons of picks, and name brands too. Pay a while there conducting your research. You don’t should bid right away therefore take your time. Compare prices, and look for sellers with smart ratings. The higher the rating, the more reputable the seller.

Another place to seek out used laptops is Amazon.com. Amazon is not solely a nice cut price store that sells new things—you can conjointly notice used items for sale at a great worth, usually a lot cheaper than their respective new items. If you have used Amazon before, then you’ve most likely seen the links “new & used.” By clicking on this link when you are doing a probe, you will be ready to see both options. However of course we tend to’re interested in used. You will be given the costs for the used things, plus its condition, and the rating of the seller.

Still another stop you ought to create before concluding your analysis is Craig’s List. This web site is abundant like a newspaper classified section in its apparent simplicity. However don’t let that simplicity fool you. Do a groundwork for “used laptop” and you’ll find an enormous selection. You’ll even opt for by location to find one thing native, or you’ll like better to expand your search to alternative regions if you wish. One dangerous issue regarding Craig’s List is that it doesn’t include a seller’s rating, thus you’ve got to be careful. One means to avoid being scammed this is often to stick to purchasing regionally, where you’ll be able to have potential face-to-face interaction with the seller.

Yet another place where you can try to search out cheap used laptops is Overstock.com. Though this website will not yield as much of a selection as eBay, or Graig’s List, and perhaps even fewer than Amazon, it’s still a smart place to look. You may realize one thing in there you did not see in any of the other sites, so it will not hurt to look.

You don’t must limit your search to the Internet. You can conjointly strive doing a bit of off line research. Look in your local newspaper and see what turns up. Often times, some individuals will choose to sell their used computers by placing ads within the newspaper, thus you will be pleasantly shocked by what you find. Try the Sunday paper since it typically contains a larger classified section.

There you have it—five ways that to appear for reasonable used laptops. By performing some thorough analysis, you’re certain to find a great deal. With all of the selections you will have at your disposal, you will be ready to seek out a laptop that has the options you’re searching for, at a worth vary you’re snug with.

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Some people think that good database programmers appear by themselves and without any effort. The truth is that all the database professionals have started out just as any other person, trying to master the complex program. The only difference is that they have found the way how to understand the confusing software. So, for all those trying to get a hang of MS Access, it is worth saying that with some little tricks and effort, anyone can achieve that.

The key thing to realize at the beginning is that MS Access application was made to use by companies as well as simple individual for personal purposes. It means that the database you create can be as simple or complex as you want. This gives you the opportunity to increase the complexity of the database, while your skills and knowledge grow.

You should also understand that it will take some time to feel comfortable and confident using the program. It means you shouldn’t get frustrated and stay calm even if something doesn’t work out from the first try. It is hard to learn, when you are tense or frustrated, so let’s forget about that at once.

One of the best features of MS Access is the help option. Again, because the software was also intended for individual usage, experts included a great help base for us. So, you should definitely take advantage of that feature. Another great thing about the Access is that it can provide you with online help, in case you didn’t find how to solve your problem in the help option within the program. You can use online help only after you look through the built-in help feature.

If none of the above options helped you to solve the problem, then it is wise to go to the search engine and type in a short but clear question about your Access problem. This can often help you accomplish some specific task in Access.

You shouldn’t be afraid to tinker around with the system. When you have a free time, spend it looking through and performing tasks in Access. It will not only help you solve some of your Access problems, but also get more familiar with the system. You will find out more useful features and functions.

Try to spend some time working with MS Access every day. Even if it is 15 minutes a day of random work in MS Access, it is still good for getting experience and skills in Access database. You will notice an amazing progress in using the database effectively due to constant exposure. Just looking through the help feature and finding an article to read about something that interests you will make you understand the program better and will pay off in the long run.

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In this article, I am going to tell you how you can easily save a lot of money on web hosting. In particular, I””ll review the following information: how to divide services into stages to make procedures more financially feasible, how to find promotions from hosting professionals and hosting panel companies, and how to use free promotions during the stages of your hosting services.

The information in this article is written for people who either do not have a regular host company and hosting panel provider or are looking for new professionals. I””m assuming that you have not ordered a similar service recently and have web hosting needs that need to be addressed.

Any professional service-can be divided into stages, from the point when you feel that web hosting help is necessary to when the problem is resolved by the web hosting and hosting panel company. There are 3 separate stages:

- Pre order consultation – the professional determines what service needs to be done per client requirements.
- Order – the actual order procedure.
- Follow-up support – the provider monitors the results of the procedure.

In order to find applicable promotions to ease the financial burden of web host, you must search press release websites; news aggregators such as Google news; or ask questions on web hosting websites or hosting control panels websites, such as hosting control panel website. You can use keywords such as “trial hosting control panel” or “trial hosting panel”. Hosting control panels companies like to attract new customers in much the same way as regular service stores, using methods like car washes and fundraisers. Nearly 100% of the time, then, you can find a great deal by searching online. And this way, you can save both the professional””s time and your own (no more lecturing about system requirements or payment plans!) – not to mention save loads of money in your wallet.

This article taught you how to save a lot of money on web service, divide the work into stages and use promotions and free hosting panel software trials from businesses to get web hosting service for next to nothing.

Database Duplication Best Practices – Database Monitoring

This document provides you with a brief description on how to do refresh a Database (duplicate a database) from the Production Database backup taken using RMAN to tapes to any other environments.

I. Introduction

This document describes the process of refreshing the Test Databases from the RMAN Production database backups taken to the Tapes / Disks.

II. Initial Preparation Steps

We first need to make sure that the database is not running within Fail Safe environment, and that the disk space used by the old database is released, so we can fit the new database. Here are a few steps that need to be taken cars of before starting the Database Refresh:

1. If there is requirement to preserve some data or accounts (Schema’s and other necessary things) from the old environment, export that data first before starting the refreshing from Production.

2. If the databases are running in Fail Safe environment, shut them down through Fail Safe Manager. Also shut down the Listener and the Intelligent Agent that is running for those particular databases.

3. Modify the TNSNAMES.ORA, the INIT.ORA (and listener.ora if required) files to make sure the database can be started independently, using the local listener. Try this out by starting the listener service and database service manually through the Services screen on the Win 2000 machine, and starting database through SQL*Plus.

4. Shut down the database using the FAILSAFE Manager and remove all database files except ones from the Admin directories (e.g. init.ora). This is required to clean space on disk to fit the new database. If we have enough disk space for the restore to happen, then we move the existing files to a different directory or mount point.

III. Preparing RMAN Duplication Script

Once we are done with the above steps, we can proceed with the next step of creating the scripts for restoring the Database. An example of this script is given below:

connect catalog rman/password@;
connect target sys/password@;
connect auxiliary sys/password@;
run {
allocate auxiliary channel ch1 type ‘sbt_tape’ parms
‘ENV=(TDPO_OPTFILE=c:clustertdpo.opt)’;
set until scn or ;

set newname for datafile 1 to ‘new path for restore’;
. . . . . .

. . . . . .
…
duplicate target database to
logfile group 1 (‘’,
(‘’) SIZE 100M,
group 2 ((‘’,
(‘’) SIZE 100M,
group 3 ((‘’,
(‘’) SIZE 100M;
}

The description of the above script is as follows :

The first part deals with connecting to required databases:

1. catalog database where RMAN catalog is stored,

2. target database which is the database we want to clone, and

3. auxiliary database which is the one that we are attempting to create.

4. Note that when running this script later on, both catalog and target databases need to be open during the process, while auxiliary database is normally in NOMOUNT state.

Next in the script is allocating channel used to access file system through TSM. Note that to do that we will need to change TSM configuration (dsm.opt file, nodename parameter) in order for the node to appear as the production node.

Next in the script is set until SCN / DATE command that specifies until which point the database will be duplicated. If the UNTIL SCN / DATE is not mentioned, RMAN will attempt to recover until the last archived log, which can cause failure if that log is not available on the tape drive (e.g. it is still on the production server disk).

Next is the list of set newname for datafile commands, which are required when new disk structure is different from production disk structure (which is case on all our systems). All database files should be specified in this list (nothing is required for tempfiles). The list of datafile’s can be obtained by querying the DBA_DATA_FILES data dictionary view.

Finally, the duplicate command is there to do the actual database duplication.

IV. Running Database Duplication

To run database duplication we can prepare a batch script, or run a command to start it up. It would look something like this:

rman cmdfile msglog

Before starting the RMAN script, the following things need to be taken care of :

1. Verify that the RMAN catalog database is open. Make sure this database will be open during complete duplication process, e.g. if it normally goes down for backup turn off the backup procedures. If the connection to the database is lost during the duplication, the process will fail and will need recovery.

2. Verify that the target database is open. Make sure this database will be open during complete duplication process, same as for RMAN database.

3. Verify that the Oracle services for auxiliary database are running and the database is in nomount state.

If the RMAN script is successful, it will get all the files from the file system, place them in appropriate locations as specified in the script, and recover the database. It will also change the Database ID, and start the database. This is the best case scenario, however, if duplication script fails you might need to try and recover from failure.

V. Recovering from Failure

If the RMAN duplication process fails, We might need to recover the database using the RMAN backup. The Database supplication or the restore can fail because of some reasons like :

1. RMAN catalog database going down for backup

2. Archived logs not available on the file system (when set until SCN was not specified in the script). In those cases you might try following steps to recover, first run the switch clone command through RMAN (After CONNECTING to the TARGET, CATALOG and AUXILIARY Databases) :

run{
switch clone datafile all;
}

Afterwards, try recreating the control file. RMAN first creates a control file but does not have all data files specified in there (it creates that one later). Best way is to backup control file to trace on the target database, and modify that script to run in auxiliary database. Changes to the script are typically: use new filenames as the location might have changed, set new database name, and use RESETLOGS clause.

Once control file is created and executed, complete recovery of the database until specified SCN, the RMAN script can look something like this :

run {
allocate auxiliary channel ch1 type ‘sbt_tape’ parms ‘ENV=(TDPO_OPTFILE=c:clustertdpo.opt)’;
set until scn 6899135273;
recover
clone database
check readonly;
release channel ch1;
}

This step will obtain all required archived logs from the file system and apply them to the database. After recovery is completed you can open the database:

alter database open resetlogs;

That would complete the recovery. Note that when recovered this way, the database Id is still the same as for production, thus you cannot use RMAN to backup that database (unless you are using different catalog). Consequently, one should always strive to have the database duplicated properly through RMAN without failures.

VI. Post Refresh Steps

After the database is duplicated, there are few steps that might be required:

1. In some environments , it may be required to change the Mode to noarchivelog mode as the Production is mainly run in Archivelog mode.

2. Add files to temporary tablespaces. When the database is restored all files and tablespaces will exist, however, none of the temp files will be created. One needs to add tempfiles to temporary tablespaces.

3. Drop all database links, and recreate them to point to proper environment. After duplication, new database will have same database links as the production, thus pointing to the production database. All the database links should therefore be dropped, and new ones created to point to the new environment.

4. If the new database is running in the Fail Safe environment, one will need to rebuild the password file on the other node (the one that was not used when duplicating the database). If this is not done, the database will not start on that node and the whole Fail Safe group will be moved to other node.

5. Revert back changes to tnsnames.ora (and listener.ora if applicable) to make sure the database can start within Fail Safe.

6. Revert back changes done to the TSM configuration files (dsm.opt).

7. Shut the database, stop local listener and database services, and start the listener and database within Fail Safe.

8. Make sure the database can fall-over correctly to another node, by moving Fail Safe group manually.

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