BMR Backup of Oracle on Windows 2008

[arctics2]

Hello,

We are backing up our Oracle servers running on Windows 2008 using BMR (Netbackup 7.5 5230 appliance).  The policy type is MS Windows and the selection list specifies the ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES directive.  

The backups succeed, however, when restoring, the RAW partitions are given drive letters and the Oracle component syncronization seems to get messed up.  

Can anyone advise what I may be missing? 

Thanks.

[Marianne]

You should be using BMR for system drives only. Plus ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES should not backup raw, unmounted volumes. If you say this is what is happening, something somewhere is very wrong...

I would like to see what 'bpmount' reports as well as bpbkar log on the Oracle client (with logging level set to 1 at least).

Use RMAN with NBU for Oracle agent to perform online backup of Oracle.

[arctics2]

Ok, to clarify, the backup job doesn't pick up the raw volumes, but the BMR restore process recreates the volumes.  

We have also been testing the with the rman/oracle agent backups which seem to work, however, when testing, the partitions and environment are already in place.  Are you saying that this type of restore would create the required volumes?

I will collect the requested logs as requested.

[Marianne]

If ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES directive is not backing up the raw volumes, we don't need bpmount or bpbkar log.

It means that the BMR is capturing volume info and recreating it (incorrectly) during restore.

Here we need advice from BMR experts like Jaime and Mandar...

[Jaime_Vazquez]

Hello.

Create a copy of the client configuraiton.  Do a "Change" of the Volumes section.

For each of the disks in question (i.e. should remain RAW), right click on the disk drives and set "restrict disk" to it.  The disks will be left untouched. If they do get drive letters, that is Microsoft's fault.

Do a Prepare To Restore for the modified configuration and specify it at restore time.

Another method is to do the normal restore but set a BMR override on the Master Server. Ahead of initiating the restore run the command bmrovradm -enable "Force DDR" (the command is in the normal NBU bin folder). You can use any configuration for the restore attempt. After the restore attempt completes, run bmrovradm -delete "Force DDR" to clear out the setting. The state of any overrides can be seen by running bmrovradm -list.

At restore time the client console will break out to the Auto-DDR screen.  Only the system volume (C:\) will be mapped. All other disk drives can be seen under the "Empty Disks" selection. Right click on each that has valid working partitions and choose "Remove Restriction".  From there choose to map each of the remaining partitions (found in the "origional layout" panel). The mapped partitions will be seen on the "new layout" panel. When all working partitions are mapped, hit the OK button to continue the process.

Please let us know how it worked out.

[arctics2]

Trying the first process, it errors out at the end of the restore stating System State files could not be restored.

[Jaime_Vazquez]

By first process, are you saying the scenario where the disk drives were mapped on the Master Server ahead of the restore attempt? 

The detailed debug information for the restore is written to the Master Server. The file is a straight up text file. The path to the file is "$INST_PATH\NetBackup\logs\bmrrst\$CLNT_NAME\MMDDYY.log".  It will show the restore request and the failure code (most likely a rc=5). If you want you can attach the file here.

The Activity Monitor will have better information in the Details section of the restore job.

For my viewing purposes, could you attach the BMR client configuration file from the client itself? The path is "$INST_PATH\NetBackup\BareMetal\client\data\bundle.dat". 

Try the operation of the second scenario, using the bmrovradm -enable "Force DDR" setting on the Master and see if that changes the results.

A third scenario that I just thought of:  Do the Prepare To Restore, and choose the option "Restore system disks/volumes" only. That should only restore the contents of the disk where the system partition lives. Note that this restore ALL of the partitions tht are defined on the system disk, not just the C:\ partition. The process will ignore all of the other disk drives.