No Disruptions
UNiBACK opens files and partitions without disrupting the Oracle database servers. UNiBACK then commits Oracle data to a tape or disk quickly to minimize the overhead that some Oracle users encounter during a hot backup.

Oracle allows UNiBACK to back up table spaces – in files or raw partitions – while the database server is active.  Using standard Oracle SQL statements, a table space is enabled for a hot backup by UNiBACK.  While enabled, Oracle changes its method for logging transactions and allows UNiBACK to save the data.  Once UNiBACK is finished with the backup, the table space is returned to it's original state.  During the backup, users are never interrupted.

Accurate Recovery

UNiBACK also tracks all files committed during a backup in its integrated file librarian.  This means at recovery time it is easy to determine what files were saved and what files are needed in order to recover the database.

UNiBACK can select files by any combination of attributes.  It is easy to configure UNiBACK to select and save all Oracle archive log files that have been created or updated since the last backup and to create a single backup containing the Oracle table spaces, control files, and all the correct log files.

Once restored, the data UNiBACK saved to tape is ready for Oracle to recover using archive log files.  Transactions that occurred during and after the backup will be rolled forward into Oracle data files during transaction recovery.  UNiBACK speeds recovery by tracking which files were saved and making them easy to locate and restore.

Smooth Interaction

Since interaction between UNiBACK and Oracle is necessary, UNiBACK provides simple methods for executing UNIX shell scripts before, during, and after a backup.  In fact, backups and scripts can be combined in UNiBACK's integrated scheduler.  Each step in a UNiBACK schedule can be made dependent on preceding steps.  This feature can be used, for example, to prevent a backup from starting if for some reason Oracle could not prepare a table space for hot backup.  UNiBACK comes with scripts which can be used directly (or they can be copied and customized) to prepare an Oracle environment for hot backups.

Efficient Operations

During a hot backup, Oracle changes the way transactions are logged.  This adds delays to applications and overhead to the system.  Since this overhead could impact your users, it is important to reduce the time required to back up Oracle data during hot backups. UNiBACK fulfills this requirement by performing extremely efficient disk and tape I/O operations, and by optionally compressing data before writing it to the tape or disk backup.