Hi,
Is it possible to take a hot backup that was done on a Unix server and restore it to a Windows server? If it can, does anyone have any links or advice on how to proceed?
Excellent question, but, unfortunately, the answer is that since hot backups are physical (i.e., rely upon physical file systems for protection, instead of logical structures such as Oracle export/import) you cannot use hot backups from heterogeneous file systems.
Sorry to be the bearer of news you didn't want to hear.
Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]
“Beware of those that seek to protect you from harm or risk. The cost will be your freedoms and your liberty.”
This is a more complicated issue than a simple "No, it can't be done" response would suggest. Oracle 9i offers no support for migrating to a different platform via rman backups, but once you've upgraded to Oracle 10g the situation is different. Perhaps it is this feature of 10g that your customer was referring to.
In Oracle 10g, rman has a "convert database" command to migrate from one platform to another. The main restriction is that the source and target o/s must use file structures with the same "endian" format. Most, but not all, Unix platforms are big endian, whereas Windows is little endian. To check whether your particular flavor of Unix is big or little endian, you can query v$transportable_platform. Please read Metalink note 413586.1 for further details.
Even if you can't use the "convert database" feature, you may still be able to migrate your database on a tablespace by tablespace basis by using the transportable tablespace option. Please see Metalink note 243304.1 for a discussion of cross platform migration using transportable tablespaces.
Well stated, Karl, thus providing yet another good justification for upgrading to at least Oracle 10g.
Also, to add to your comment about "endian" formats..."East Endians" and "West Endians" although generally compatible, are certainly not the same, right Mon? <grin>
Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]
“Beware of those that seek to protect you from harm or risk. The cost will be your freedoms and your liberty.”
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