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Turls
Level 6
For most companies Oracle database applications are critical to everyday business functions, therefore, regular, successful backup of Oracle data is a necessity. But not all Oracle installations are the same. The type of Oracle data, the frequency of data changes, and your approach to database management should all play a key role in how you implement Oracle backup procedures. This TechTip describes best practices in choosing and deploying Oracle database backup scenarios for a variety of data types and DBA strategies using Veritas NetBackup.

Oracle RMAN
Oracle’s built-in backup utility, Recovery Manager (RMAN), can be used for basic database backups, but it lacks support for storage devices such as tape and tape libraries. Most administrators will opt for this method when cloning a database for use on another host or when migrating a database to another operating system. Also, since RMAN is a disk-based backup only, you must have sufficient storage allocated for full and incremental backups. This may be the best solution in small database environments, or in companies that rely on database administrators to perform most or all of the Oracle maintenance and protection. For these reasons, RMAN alone may not be the best solution for Oracle backup in your environment.

Using NetBackup with RMAN
The NetBackup Oracle Agent can be used in conjunction with RMAN to perform a more advanced set of protection options. In this scenario, RMAN puts the database in hot backup mode, and data is sent from the Oracle DB to a NetBackup Master or Media server. A GUI-based Oracle RMAN script wizard allows you to select the data, the type of backup to be performed, the backup schedule, RMAN I/O values, and backup set limits. A similar wizard is used to generate RMAN Recovery and Restore scripts. The restore wizard provides a browser-based interface for selecting SID (system ID), granularity, and objects for recovery. There are some drawbacks to this method, however. Since data is streamed from the database in hot backup mode, performance of the database may slow the production Oracle server considerably. When not using the RMAN Recovery Catalog, NetBackup needs to make additional copies for recovery use.

NetBackup Snapshot Client and Oracle
Snapshots can be used to capture a DB state at a particular time as input for the backup process. Using NetBackup Snapshot Client, RMAN and NetBackup put the database in a consistent state, and then NetBackup initiates a snapshot of the data through the Media server. Using this technique you can easily perform an off-host backup, moving the data onto an alternate client or media server so that backups are performed without impacting the Oracle production server. This technique is best used in environments where many Oracle backups or snapshots are required and where optimum performance of the Oracle production server is required. This technique also provides a smaller backup window and improved availability of data as the DB is not in hot backup mode. One disadvantage is that this scenario requires a snapshot hardware and/or software provider to support the NetBackup Snapshot Client.

Oracle CDP with NetBackup RealTime Protection
Continuous Data Protection (CDP) allows Oracle administrators to continuously capture every disk write change from the database to a secondary disk. CDP gives you the ability to ‘roll-back’ the database to any point in time through the NetBackup console. Since only changed blocks are sent for backup, RealTime Protection will have minimal impact on the production server, will give you the finest granularity in selecting restores, and allows Oracle DBAs to quickly roll back to a previous time-frame in the event of a database crash or corruption. RealTime Protection does not integrate with the Oracle recovery agent console, however, and all restores must be made through NetBackup. Also, RealTime requires a kernel driver on the application host that may impact performance slightly (typically five percent).

Depending on your Oracle application size, complexity, and protection criteria, NetBackup and NetBackup agents can provide many options for database backup and recovery. Used in combination, they are even more powerful and flexible.

Comments
laura_loftus
Not applicable
Nice thought but has anyone ever gotten this to work right ?
The backup with the Oracle agent seems to run fine but I have NEVER been able to restore to an identical database on another server .
Can someone please tell me how ? What am I missing ?
I have spent hours, days ,weeks over the past year and finally just gave up and do my Oracle backups the "old fashioned way".
Venkatesh_K
Level 5

Hi Swathi,

i have always been experiencing problem when RMAN and netbackup are used together,

many of times my oracle backups fail with status 6 (failed to backup requested files). Netbackup troubleshooter says it must be problem with RMAN script, but same script is used every day and backups are successfull few days and fail with status 6 some days. when the backup fails with 6 i check with my DB guys and they say that backup ws successfull from thier end and they have no problem. why is Netbackup reporting this as failure with status 6.

 

weehing
Not applicable
My colleague encountered one of this problem, he found that the archives log were deleted by someone due to lack of space.
Netbackup for oracle is configured to backup archive logs, when some of the archive logs missing before backing up, it complains. Investigate from this angle and maybe you can find some clue.
rjrumfelt
Level 6
using NetBackup to backup the flat file dump of Oracle databases.  Is this the first method you mentioned - just backing up the results of the Oracle RMAN backup via NetBackup?
Mandeep_Singh_M
Level 4
an you please tell me the channels allocation best prectice for taking RMAN backup and recovery.
Jomy
Level 5
Partner Accredited

Netbackup integration with RMAN works fantasically

we even restored to another server on IBM AIX platform

we can create script even on GUI !!-----

 

Arjunsukumar
Level 3

Can any one tell me if its possible to create different schedule like daily, monthly directed to different volume pools in a single Oracle Policy, and how to do this

MortenSeeberg
Level 6
Partner Accredited

Just fell on this post, and although a few years late, someone might hit it with a search :)

When the shell script is called by NetBackup several parameters are passed along, check Admin Guide for Oracle section "About the environment variables set by NetBackup for Oracle" and "About the RMAN SEND command variables".

So:

  1. You create your normal Oracle policy.
     
  2. You create X amount of different "Automatic schedules" for each of your different retention backups, like:
     - Daily
     - Weekly
     - Yearly
     
  3. You create same amount of "Application Backup" schedules, easiest if you create them with with the names from the "Automatic Schedules, example:
     - Application_Daily
     - Application_Weekly
     - Application_Yearly
    In each of these application schedules you configure an policy override to whatever disk pool/tape pool you want.
     
  4. You modify the Oracle template scripts to use this standard, so you dynamically create a variable for the the Application Schedule:
    NB_ORA_SCHED="Application_${NB_ORA_PC_SCHED}

    and then when you call RMAN you use ENV:
    ALLOCATE CHANNEL ch00 TYPE 'SBT_TAPE' PARMS 'ENV=(NB_ORA_POLICY=$NB_ORA_POLICY,NB_ORA_SCHED=$NB_ORA_SCHED,NB_ORA_CLIENT=$NB_ORA_CLIENT)';

 

Version history
Last update:
‎06-22-2009 10:19 AM
Updated by: