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Netbackup snapshot of a Linux guest on VMWare : how to backup Oracle database ?

Benny1
Level 2

Hi all,

situation : Linux (=guest) on VMWare with a Oracle Database 11gR2. Backup software is NetBackup 7.5 (console 7.5.0.6), have a netbackup client on database server.

current situation : we are first putting the Oracle database in backup mode, then initiate a snapshot backup of the entire guest and then put database out of backup mode. This works fine and we are able to restore/recover the database this way.

problem : the default oracle backup tool RMAN is unaware of this backup and thus we loose important functionality (tablespace point in time recovery, duplicate database, block recovery) + there is not information of the snapshot backups in Oracle

question : is there a way to make snapshot backups of the entire guest or only database but keeping RMAN in the loop ? Otherwise said : can we use RMAN to initiate a database snapshot backup ?

I was thinking about RMAN command "backup proxy" but this does not initiate a snapshot backup, it's a conventional backup and thus too slow.
Anyone who has installed such a setup ? or knows how this should be configured....

Kind regards,

Benny.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Nicolai
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP   

It's currently not possible to backup Oracle database using a VMware snapshot and RMAN consistent state. You need to use a agent based backup or use RMAN to dump backup to local disk.

Consistent backup backup of SQL,Exchange & Sharepoint using a VMware snapshot is supported at the moment.

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2 REPLIES 2

Nicolai
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP   

It's currently not possible to backup Oracle database using a VMware snapshot and RMAN consistent state. You need to use a agent based backup or use RMAN to dump backup to local disk.

Consistent backup backup of SQL,Exchange & Sharepoint using a VMware snapshot is supported at the moment.

Jim-90
Level 6

I would use RMAN as suggested.   

Also there's a problem with using VM snapshots.  When the VADP backup has finished all the database changes that have a occured while the backup has been running are recorded in the VMware snapshot.  When the backup finishes all those changes in the snapshot have to be applied before the snapshot can be deleted (VMware snapshots are not "copy on write").  When the snapshot changes are being applied storage is inaccessable for the VM guest that has been backed up. At the time of complete cut over from running on the snapshot to a snapshot free VM guest the IP network comms is temporarily stopped.

Usually databases will throw an error when the backup snapshot is being applied and the end of the backup.  The snapshot problem can also be compounded by NBUs habit of leaving orphaned snapshots behind. 

Some people may have had a go at this technique https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/can-symcquiesce-and-netbackup-vmware-7x-keep-database-files-consistent

But that does not resolve the snapshot problems at the end of the backup.