Only backup archive logs in Oracle

[Doug_Floyd]

Is there a way through Netbackup to only backup the archive logs in Oracle (without running a hot backup too)? What we would like to do is setup a full level 0 hot backup twice a week, a nightly incremental level 1 backup, and additional archive log only backups a couple of times throughout the day.

If anyone has configured something like this, any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[zippy]

Doug,

You need to make a /archive Directory on the server that has oracle on it, ask the Oracle DBA to configurethe archive logs to be copied to the /archive directoy.


stick this in cron

# Oracle archive directory "/archive" to tape
05,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55 * * * * /usr/local/bin/archive.ora > /dev/null 2>&1

send me your email and I will send you the script that is used to sweep the archive to tape. Once the DBA sees what the script does he will understand how to configure the database.

Cool?


Oh yeah no need to do the hot backup stuff.

JD

[Doug_Floyd]

James,

Thanks for your input. I think I see where you're going here, I'm actually the DBA and I know how what RMAN commands to run for this. I just don't have any experience with NetBackup and our SA was wondering how to configure this through NetBackup. If we do follow the setup you suggested, will Netbackup recognize the RMAN archive log backups and be able to use them during a recovery? Also, I'm not sure what you meant by your last comment, why wouldn't you need a hot backup?

If you want to share what you have, my email is dougfloyd@hotmail.com.

Thanks again for your help!

[zippy]

Doug,

Do you have the oracle extension for netbackup?

This will allow you to use RMAN with Netbackup and yes you have to put the Database into Hot Backup mode to do the backup, when you install the "Oracle extension" the install dumps sample scripts, look in

/usr/openv/netbackup/ext/db_ext/oracle/samples/rman

I sent them to your hotmail just in case you dont have them.

Will Netbackup recognize the RMAN archive log backups and be able to use them during a recovery?

From what I remember you need to setup an different database for RMAN to keep track of all backups and restores, from what I recall the DBA restored a database from RMAN, he had to configure RMAN to work with the Master Netbackup server and when he needed to restore he would run RMAN and RMAN would "interact" with the Netbackup server for the file sets, archive and date and time.


RMAN was a pain in the neck to take care of because if the backup failed in the middle the database would stay in backup mode, and you know that su*ks.

The day EMC invented SNAPS was a wonderfull day!

You do need a oracle extension key on your master server to make RMAN work.

Check

/veritas/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/get_license_key

you should see this

License Key:
Date Added: Nov 23, 2004 at 13:59:19
Host: server
Product: NetBackup Enterprise Server
Client count: See license certificate.
Expires: No Expiration Date
Feature: Oracle extension

[Doug_Floyd]

Yes, we do have the Oracle extension for Netbackup. We do have hot backups configured now through Netbackup using RMAN. Our current schedule is running full level 0 backups twice a week and incremental level 1 backups every night. I wanted to add additional archive log only backups throughout the day. The problem is in the Netbackup GUI, we only see options for full or incremental backups. I wasn't sure if we did our own RMAN backups outside of Netbackup, then would Netbackup see those when trying to restore. Currently, if we do a restore through the Netbackup interface, you can enter a date and time to restore to and it will pick the appropriate full and incremental backups to use.

I guess we'll just have to do some testing with the approach you suggested. I think there is also an option to create a custom backup template in Netbackup that calls a user created RMAN shell script. I will look into that as well.

If anyone has tried this out, please let me know if I'm on the right track.

Thanks for your input.