1.10 Feature Comparison of Backup Methods

Besides being limited by system requirements, the backup and recovery solution you choose should be driven by the features that you want. Table 1-2 compares the features of the different backup methods.

Table 1-2 Feature Comparison of Backup Methods

Feature	Recovery Manager	User-Managed	Export
Closed database backups	Supported. Requires instance to be mounted.	Supported.	Not supported.
Open database backups	Supported. No need to use `BEGIN`/`END` `BACKUP` statements.	Supported. Must use `BEGIN`/`END` `BACKUP` statements.	Requires rollback or undo segments to generate consistent backups.
Incremental backups	Supported.	Not supported.	Not supported.
Corrupt block detection	Supported. Identifies corrupt blocks and logs in `V$DATABASE_BLOCK_CORRUPTION`.	Not supported.	Supported. Identifies corrupt blocks in the export log.
Automatic record keeping of files in backups	Supported. Establishes the name and locations of all files to be backed up (whole database, tablespace, datafile or control file backup).	Not supported. Files to be backed up must be specified manually.	Supported. Performs either full, user, or table backups.
Recovery catalogs	Supported. Backups are recorded inthe RMAN repository, which is contained in the control file and optionally in the recovery catalog database.	Not supported. DBA must keep own records of backups.	Not supported.
Backups to media manager	Supported. Interfaces with a media manager. RMAN also supports proxy copy, a feature that allows the media manager to manage the transfer of data.	Supported. Backup to tape is manual or controlled by a media manager.	Supported.
Backs up initialization parameter file	Supported.	Supported.	Not supported.
Backs up password and networking files	Not supported.	Supported.	Not supported.
Platform-independent language for backups	Supported.	Not supported.	Supported.