Difference between a hot backup and a cold backup in oracle.

In Oracle database we are doing either hot (inconsistent) or cold (consistent) backup. Suppose we have requirement to do the backup in working hours. In this situation we have to plan hot backup. For cold or consistent backup, we have to plan it in night because cold backup requires the database to be offline and therefore unavailable.

Lets began to understand difference between Hot and Cold backup in oracle database. We have aware that database backup is very important and mandatory to recover database. There are several method available for backup oracle database. In Oracle Database, there are two types of backup i.e. Physical and Logical backup. In physical backup we can perform Hot and Cold backup. We always prefer RMAN utility to do the Physical backup.

Database backup can be done in two ways. Either it can be taken off or keeping the database up and running.

Cold Backup:- Cold backup is consistent backup and taken while there is no user activity going on the ERP system. This has also called offline backup, is taken while database shutdown hence application will not available to user access. In this method of backup database does not require being in archive log mode.

The benefit of taking Cold backup is that it is typically easier to administer the backup and recovery process. For cold backup database does not require being in archive log mode.

Hot Backup :- Hot backup or online backup means backing up database while the database still online and available for user access. Hot backups do not require any downtime, but are a little more complex and require archived redo logs.

The benefit of taking a hot backup is that the database is available for use while the backup is occurring and one can recover the database to any point in time.