Want to backup Oracle 10g on Linux OS faster

Question

I am looking for fastest way of taking full backup of database oracle 10 g on Linux.
To summarize the requirement let me explain what activity we do
Whenever we have to apply changes in our application where database changes (create or modify table structure and create indexes) are applicable.
1>     Take full cold backup of the database.
2>     Apply application changes – application internally generate the sql script and make the changes at database or application configuration level changes. No external script, so not really having control over taking backup of limited objects or changes.
3>     Validate if application is working as expected.
4>     If application is not working as expected would like to go back to the previous state i.e. restore the backup taken at step 1.
Using traditional way of backup in step 1 it takes almost 3 hr to take backup (database size around 250 GB)
Could you pl suggest me the best ways of taking backup in above scenario so that we can reduce the backup time to few min rather than hours.
thanks in advance!

Answer 1

936186 wrote:
2>     Apply application changes – application internally generate the sql script and make the changes at database or application configuration level changes. No external script, so not really having control over taking Do you have some sort of self-aware application? SkyNet? :) In all seriousness I'd be interested to know a bit more about how this works.
Could you pl suggest me the best ways of taking backup in above scenario so that we can reduce the backup time to few min rather than hours. Have you thought about taking hot backups (w/ RMAN)? You may be able to do something at the tablespace level instead.
If you can provide more details we may be able to help you further.