Oracle Flash Recovery Area (FRA)
Up through Oracle 11g R1, the Oracle Flash Recovery Area (FRA)
was the name of one of the basic components of the RMAN environment.
The FRA is essentially a disk location for the storage of files
related to the recovery process. These files in the FRA are
managed by Oracle and RMAN automatically. Files that could be
found in the FRA include:
- RMAN backups
- control file
- logs
- online redo log copies
- archived redo logs
- flashback logs
Using an FRA to automate the management of backup-related files
can greatly simplify the administration of the database by providing
automatic space management for files related to backup and recovery.
Otherwise, the DBA has to manually manage the space, which can be
challenging because the components that are writing the different
backup and recovery-related files are each unaware of the other and
are ignorant to the size of the files the other is creating.
During creation, the FRA is given a disk location and an
upper limit for space allowed for storage of the associated backup
and recovery files. The DBA also establishes a retention
policy. RMAN then automatically keeps the backups and any
archived redo logs needed for complete recovery as are required to
satisfy the policy. When files are no longer needed for the
established retention policy, they can be deleted as RMAN needs
space for new files.
In
Oracle 11g R2, the FRA has been renamed from the Flash Recovery
Area to the Fast Recovery Area. The description of the two in
Oracle's RMAN documentation is unchanged other than the name, so DBA
already using or planning to establish an FRA should be comforted
that FRA=FRA.
Additional information on Flash (and Fast) Recovery Area is
available at the following:
Also check HERE for additional notes on:
For more information about Backup and Recovery using RMAN and
Data Pump, check out Kamran Agayev Agamehdi's excellent book
Oracle Backup & Recovery: Expert secrets for using RMAN and Data
Pump.
