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Hamza_H's avatar
Hamza_H
Moderator
6 years ago
Solved

Question about backup a VM that has Oracle DB

Hello;

I have a question regarding a Vmware backup of a VM that has Oracle databases.

is there any harm of doing a backup of this VM? the snapshot won't "hurt" oracle's databases?

and if I want to backup those databases, do I have do install NetBackup client on that VM and do another Policy (type= Oracle Intelligent Policy) to backup those Oracle?

What are the best practices please?.

Thanks,

8.1.2
windows server 2012
  • Michal_Mikulik1's avatar
    Michal_Mikulik1
    6 years ago

    Hello,

    on Windows Oracle servers, service called Oracle VSS Writer is installed with Oracle SW. When you are doing VMware snapshots, this writer is also called and puts Oracle into consistent state for the time of snapshot. When you search Oracle logs, you should find messages about this state in them, for the time of snapshot (ALTER DATAFILE XXX BEGIN/END BACKUP)

    But the purpose of this is rather related to consistency during snapshots, I would not take it as Oracle data backup - NetBackup is not "Oracle aware" during VMware backups, thus it is not cataloguing any Oracle metadata.

    Regards

    Michal

     

  • Nick_Morris's avatar
    Nick_Morris
    6 years ago

    From personal experience, I've had Oracle DBAs say it can affect the DB when taking a VM snapshot (cause it to crash or similar) so i have always just done an NBU Client backup to save any hassle.

  • davidmoline's avatar
    davidmoline
    6 years ago

    Further to Nick_Morris comment, I have also seen this happen on various database servers.

    One way to avoid this occurring is to enable the "Perform snapshot without quiescing if quiesced snapshot fails" option in the Advanced options in the VMware tab for the policy.

    In addition, I would also look to exclude the VMDK files that host the database files.

    The above of course assumes you are doing agent based Oracle backups of the relevant databases.

  • Krutons's avatar
    Krutons
    Moderator
    6 years ago

    To properly protect the database, you'd need to install the client and do an Oracle backup of the database.

    • Hamza_H's avatar
      Hamza_H
      Moderator
      6 years ago

      Hi Krutons , thank your for your reply,

      I am aware of that actually, my main question is, is there any harm to oracle databases of doing a snapshot of that VM ?

      I have actually two scenarios:

      1st: let's say that I don't care about the oracle databases, I just want to backup that VM through VMware Backup, would the snapshot "disturb" oracle's databases?

      2nd: let's say that I want to backup the oracle's databases and do a Vmware Backup, in this case I know that I have to configure 2 Policies :

      - VMware Policy for the VM backup

      - OIP for Oracle databases.

      If my VMware policy is executed and the snapshot is in progress, In this case I can't run (or schedule) the OIP to start at this same time right? because the snapshot is still in progress and oracle's data are not in a consistent state?

      • DPFreelance's avatar
        DPFreelance
        Level 4
        6 years ago

        I'm not 100% sure about Oracle on VM's, but I think the genreal rule of thumb is "don't snapshot database servers".

        For my environment, we use the database agent where applicable and then for OS backups we use the "Inside the Matrix" approach and treat the client like it's a real physical server.

        $0.02

  • Nick_Morris's avatar
    Nick_Morris
    Level 6
    6 years ago

    From personal experience, I've had Oracle DBAs say it can affect the DB when taking a VM snapshot (cause it to crash or similar) so i have always just done an NBU Client backup to save any hassle.

    • davidmoline's avatar
      davidmoline
      Level 6
      6 years ago

      Further to Nick_Morris comment, I have also seen this happen on various database servers.

      One way to avoid this occurring is to enable the "Perform snapshot without quiescing if quiesced snapshot fails" option in the Advanced options in the VMware tab for the policy.

      In addition, I would also look to exclude the VMDK files that host the database files.

      The above of course assumes you are doing agent based Oracle backups of the relevant databases.

      • Hamza_H's avatar
        Hamza_H
        Moderator
        5 years ago

        Hello Guys,

        Thanks all for your replies.

        So you confirmed what I had in mind " snapshot of a VM that has oracle databases is not a harmless action" even with the oracle VSS for windows VMs." there is always a risk..

        Thanks again :)