Hot or Cold Backup?

Explain the difference between a hot backup and a cold backup and the benefits associated with each.

A hot backup means taking a backup of the database while it is still up and running where the database is in archive log mode. A cold backup means taking a backup of the database while it is shut down and does not require that it is in archive log mode.

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

The benefit of taking a cold backup is that it is typically easier to administer the backup and recovery process. In addition, since you are taking cold backups the database does not require being in archive log mode and thus there will be a slight performance gain as the database is not cutting archive logs to disk.