Database archiving is an integral part of enterprise database solutions. Oracle databases are today handling terabytes of data, in some cases even petabytes of data. In most cases, data is not deleted or updated regularly which leads to the inflating the size of the database in the long run. Now the problem with enterprises is not saving on disk space, but protecting corporate data for longer periods of time through data retention software for meeting regulatory requirements. But the retention should not come in the way of performance. Archiving of data helps in information lifecycle management wherein along with optimum system performance; retention of data is assured, along with quick and efficient restoration.
The company has to first assess the amount of active data that is present in the database while starting out with Oracle database archiving implementation. Risks associated with database archiving solutions are:
· Escalating costs due to improper database handling
· Loss of relevant and critical data
· Huge demand and responsibility for database damages
· Non-compliance with SLAs during backup and recovery process
· Manipulation of data due to improper archiving.
While it may seem trivial that to select information from one data source and put them in another database, it is not as easy as it seems. A perfect data retention software guarantees that the data is intact and all relationships are in place. Most databases also define referential integrity constraints; hence it is very important that all of that data is extracted keeping in view of those constraints. Relationships should be mentioned in the archive so that after their restore, it is easy to use the data again.
Operationally, it is important to remove rows out the production database and keep it in the archive. There are different row removal options like SQL Delete, Truncate, CTAS (Create Table as Select), and Oracle Partitioning. Post-deletion, a large number of rows would have been reviewed from a table which leads to queries’ execution faster and faster.
Database archiving solutions are critical for the optimum performance of every Oracle enterprise database and should be planned at the start much like disaster recovery. Due to data explosion, most applications will require cleaning of rarely accessed data from transactional and operational databases either for meeting compliance demands, for internal business requirements or for boosting application performance. The data can be retained as and when needed in an archive or purged by applying a discard policy.
To delete a huge amount of data from Oracle tables, one should explore many considerations. The goal of Oracle database archiving solutions is to take out data from the database and then optimize the resulted transactional and operational data so that the database can perform better.