Quest just released a new tool into the wild. DBAs and systems administrators can now get a better handle on the state of their Oracle backups with a very light-weigh easy to install tool called Quest Backup Reporter for Oracle.

You can read a complete overview of the product here, but here are the basics:

How much does it cost?
Right now, and for the next several months it is absolutely FREE. Zero dollars. No cost. Do we have your attention now?

What does it do?
It reads your control files to get a list of your backups, analyzes said backups for problems, performance issues, policy violations, and much more.

Very quickly get a handle on all of your backup issues across all of your Oracle databases

Ok, now show me some cool stuff.
You probably already have some tools that attempt to make your backups more managemeable. You might have even purchased a 3rd party solution to take care of your backups for you. But how deep do these tools really go when probing your system for issues? It’s nice to know that the backup happened or not. Or that it took you too long. But does it tell you where the bottleneck is occuring, and how to fix it? Our tool DOES.

Highlighting throughput issues, identifying bottenecks is a breeze!

Ok, how do I get started?

  • Make sure you’re running at least Oracle RDBMS 9, 10, or 11.
  • You’ll need the MSFT .NET engine, v2 minimum.
  • Ensure access to the database data dictionary and V$ views.
  • Download and install the tool
  • Import your existing Toad for Oracle connections.
  • Go here for support.