Flashback database

Oracle Flashback Database is a feature introduced in Oracle 9i and heavily improved in Oracle 10g that gives you the ability to rewind your entire database to a specific point in time without the need to restore from your backups. Of course, the database flashback and the ARCHIVELOG mode needs to be enabled to allow you to perform a Flashback Database operation.

You can easily check if Flashback Database is enabled in your database by using the following statement via SQL*Plus:

SQL> SELECT flashback_on FROM v$database; 

FLASHBACK_ON
------------------
YES

To enable Flashback Database, please follow these easy steps in SQL*Plus:

1. Ensure that your database is running in the ARCHIVELOG mode.

2. Configure the Fast Recovery Area (FRA) by setting values for the DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST and DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST_SIZE initialization parameters:

   • DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST specifies the location of the FRA

     For example:

     	SQL>ALTER SYSTEM SET DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST='/u01/fra';
     

   • DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST_SIZE...