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Reduce number of Tapes for ONE Database backup (with several datafiles/handles)

Tape_Archived
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Current RMAN Backup Scenario-
Master(7.7.3) - Win 2008R2, Media(7.7.3) - Phy Win 2008R2, Client(7.7.3) - Oracle Linux 6

1. Only ONE RMAN Bakcup policy for all clients and databases.

2. DBA triggers application (oracle) backup job from cron using RMAN script. This RMAN creates mulitple backup jobs (for several datafiles) in NetBackup to completely backup ONE Database.

3. I backup these jobs (databfiles) to AdvancedDisk on 3 Media servers and then Duplicate to Tape using SLP.

4. While Duplicating to Tape, SLP is not smart enough & while duplicating it does not understand if the backup image is for a particular ONE database so it duplicates to multiple Tapes even if total size of ONE database is less than 100GB.

One solution is to create individual policy for each database & its own SLP for this policy, BUT this soultion is not feasible for me as DBA controls all backups I just own SLP's.

I am looking if you can suggest an option where i can duplicate RMAN backup of a ONE database to minimum Tapes using one backup policy & SLP.

8 REPLIES 8

mohsinmansoor
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Configure "Maximum number of partially full media" setting in the Tape Pool used by the SLP.

by default it is "0" which means the job will pick up another tape whenever a stream of data comes in to write data to that pool. However for example, if you make it "2" then if two tapes are currently being used and data is being written on them, then no further tape will be picked up untillone of them is full.

Tape_Archived
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Thanks for update, I have "Maximum number of partially full media" value to 5 for very long time, setting it to 2 will only allow max 2 jobs to run and won't be sufficient to duplicate the amount of data that we backup within our window.

What SLP is doing here - it's creating set of images (from backup of several databases) and duplicating to tape instead i want SLP to understand & group images of ONE database & then duplicate to tape. As I mentioned earliere I am using single policy to do all DB backup of all servers & this causing SLP to create a set of images from several databases instead of ONE. Is there any way where I can tell SLP (parameter Setting or keyword from image) to group images of ONE database & then duplicate to tape so that backup of this database resides on minimum number of Tapes.  

Marianne
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" .....  i want SLP to understand & group images of ONE database & then duplicate to tape.

There is no such function or setting.
You will need to logically separate it via different policies and pools. 

One way that I can see this working, is to create separate pool(s) with MPF of 1 or 2, and then create separate SLP to use this pool. Select this SLP in the Oracle policy.

Only you can decide if this effort will be worth your while.

 

Tape_Archived
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Rman backup to several Tapes.jpg

Thanks @Marianne for your suggestions, I already have separate pool for these jobs. Even using single pools database backup "pieces" moves to different tapes as we do not separate policy for that single database backup.

Tape_Archived
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The only common parameter between ONE database Full backup and its images is "Keyword" in image details. That keyword is Database ID  which is set/given by RMAN and I am sure SLP is not YET smart enough to use keyword as parameter to group the images.

Marianne
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Seems you need to log a 'Request for Enhancement'. 

Get hold of your local SE to log the request with Product Management.

Genericus
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You could do this by creating separate SLP for each DB, and forcing them to single thread.

You can do this by creating separate volume pools for each DB and limiting partially full tapes.

You can do this by modifying the backup scripts FILESPERSET value so it backs up the entire DB as one child job.

 

NetBackup 9.1.0.1 on Solaris 11, writing to Data Domain 9800 7.7.4.0
duplicating via SLP to LTO5 & LTO8 in SL8500 via ACSLS

Tape_Archived
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Thanks @ll for the suggestions, I will try on these option and check if it helps. I will welcome more such suggestions from community for this post.