Configuring Compression for Backups

You can optionally use compression when backing up Oracle databases to Oracle Database Backup Cloud Service. Compression conserves bandwidth by reducing the size of your backups before they’re sent to the cloud. You’ll specify compression when you perform a backup.

Recovery Manager (RMAN) supports binary compression using one of the following compression levels: HIGH, MEDIUM, BASIC, and LOW. The recommended level for cloud backups is MEDIUM.

For example, the following RMAN commands configure compression using the MEDIUM algorithm:

RMAN> CONFIGURE COMPRESSION ALGORITHM 'MEDIUM';
RMAN> CONFIGURE DEVICE TYPE sbt BACKUP TYPE TO COMPRESSED BACKUPSET;

Backups must be in the form of backup sets, not image copies. For information about configuring compression for backups, see Configuring Compression Options in Oracle Database Backup and Recovery User's Guide.