Although, when one correctly, user-managed backups are a perfectly acceptable way to back up an Oracle database, it has probably become clear that these methods can easily introduce problems with human error. Using these methods, there is a possibility to omit needed files, back up the wrong files, or back them up in a wrong order, making recovery an extremely difficult proposition. In order to safely back up an enterprise-level database, Oracle felt that it was necessary to introduce an application that could be used as the standard tool. Today, that tool is called Oracle Recovery Manager.
In Oracle Version 7, the Enterprise Backup Utility (EBU) was released as a part of the standard Oracle database software installation. It was Oracle's first attempt to provide an enterprise-grade solution for backing up and recovering databases. The original EBU was less than successful; so, in Version 8, Oracle retooled the EBU and released Oracle...