Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Suspending and Resuming a Database

The ALTER SYSTEM SUSPEND  statement halts  all  input  and  output  (I/O)  to  datafiles (file header and file data)  and  control files. The  suspended  state  lets  us  back  up  a database  without  I/O interference. When  the database  is suspended  all  preexisting I/O operations are  allowed  to complete and any  new  database  accesses  are  placed  in a  queued state. The  suspend   command is  not  specific  to  an  instance. In  an  Oracle  Real  Application  Clusters  environment, when  we issue the  suspend command  on  one  system,  internal  locking  mechanisms  propagate  the  halt request across  instances, thereby  quiescing  all active   instances  in  a  given cluster. However, if someone starts  a  new instance another instance is being suspended, the new instance will not be suspended .

Using  the  ALTER SYSTEM RESUME  statement to resume normal database operations. The SUSPEND and  RESUME commands  can  be  issued  from  different  instances. For example, if instances 1, 2, and 3 are  running, and  we  issue  an  ALTER SYSTEM  SUSPEND  statement  from  instance 1, then  we  can issue  a RESUME  statement from instance 1, 2, or 3 with the same effect. The suspend/resume feature is useful  in systems that allow us to mirror a disk or file  and  then split  the  mirror, providing an alternative  backup  and  restore  solution. If we  use  a system  that is  unable to split a mirrored disk from an existing database while writes are occurring, then we can use the suspend/resume feature to facilitate the split. 

The  suspend/resume  feature is  not a  suitable  substitute  for  normal  shutdown  operations, because  copies  of a  suspended  database can  contain  uncommitted  updates. The  following statements  illustrate suspend and resume usage. The V$INSTANCE view is queried to confirm database status.

SQL> alter system suspend;
System altered

SQL> select database_status from v$instance;
DATABASE_STATUS
------------------------
SUSPENDED

SQL> alter system resume ;
System altered

SQL> select database_status from v$instance ;
DATABASE_STATUS
-------------------------
ACTIVE


Enjoy         :-) 


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