Database FlashSnap lets you capture an online image of an actively changing database at a given instant, known as a snapshot. You can then perform backups and off-host processing tasks on these snapshots while still maintaining continuous availability of your critical data. Database FlashSnap offers you a flexible way to efficiently manage multiple point-in-time copies of your data, and reduce resource contention on your business-critical servers.

A database snapshot can be used on the same host as the production database or on a secondary host sharing the same storage.

A database snapshot can be used for the following off-host processing applications:

When the snapshot is no longer needed, the database administrator can import the original snapshot back to the primary host and resynchronize the snapshot to the original database volumes.

Database FlashSnap commands are executed from the command line interface.

Database FlashSnap also enables you to resynchronize your original database volumes from the data in the snapshot if the original volumes become corrupted. This is referred to as reverse resynchronization.

Database FlashSnap significantly reduces the time it takes to backup your database, increase the availability of your production database, and still maintain your production database's performance.