Flashback Data Archiver Process (FBDA)

Archiving Changes for Table Flashback 📚

🔍 What is FBDA?

The flashback data archiver process (FBDA) helps track and store transactional changes to tables over time, enabling you to flashback tables to a previous state.

🛠️ How Does FBDA Work?

• When a transaction modifies a tracked table and commits, FBDA:
  • Reads undo blocks from the database buffer cache and undo segments in data files.
  • Filters relevant undo data for objects marked for archival.
  • Copies this undo info into the flashback data archive tablespace.
• FBDA maintains metadata about current rows and tracks archived data volume.

⚙️ Key Responsibilities

• Manages flashback data archive for space, partitioning, and retention.
• Tracks how far archiving of tracked transactions has progressed.
• Runs as either a thread or an operating system process.

💡 Why FBDA Matters

• Enables point-in-time flashback for individual tables.
• Provides fine-grained historical data beyond whole database flashback.
• Helps maintain compliance with data retention policies.