Simple oracle backup without using exp or expdp

If your database is not running in archive log mode the answer is yes. Here are some scripts I use to backup and restore my database.

--- backup.bat ---

sqlplus "sys/passwd@database as sysdba" @shutdown.sqlxcopy C:\oracle\oradata\database\*.* C:\oracle\oradata\backup_database\*.* /Ysqlplus "sys/passwd@database as sysdba" @startup.sql

---- shutdown.sql

shutdown immediateexit;

---- startup.sql

startupexit;

Restore script is similar. Just copies the files in the other direction.

You can just copy the data files ( make sure you get the control files as well, and make sure you TEST your backups ), however. You should probably be using RMAN.

The Oracle® Database Backup and Recovery Quick Start Guide would be a good place to start.

A very simple backup method is to export the relevant schema using the exp tool. If e.g. all your tables exist in the schema MY_APP (read database for mysql users), you can dump all its tables to one file.

exp userid=MY_APP file=dumpfile.dmp log=logfile.txt consistent=y statistics=none buffer=1024000

Restoring the dumpfile to a second database works like this

imp userid=system fromuser=MY_APP touser=MY_APP file=dumpfile.dmp commit=y buffer=102400 

Or you can restore the tables from MY_APP to another schema in the same database

imp userid=system fromuser=MY_APP touser=MY_BACKUP file=dumpfile.dmp commit=y buffer=102400

Just create a new schema MY_BACKUP before the import

create user MY_BACKUP identified by SECRET default tablespace USERS temporary tablespace temp;grant connect, resource to MY_BACKUP;