Using NetBackup with Oracle ZDLRA: A Collaborative Approach to Oracle Protection
I recently had a customer ask about NetBackup versus Oracle ZDLRA—a comparison I typically avoid framing as a competition. The reality is, NetBackup and ZDLRA can serve complementary roles, and leveraging both can deliver strong Oracle data protection while supporting broader organizational requirements. NetBackup provides robust, enterprise-grade Oracle coverage. It’s designed to meet the protection needs of most customers while supporting a secure, scalable 3-2-1 data protection strategy. Meanwhile, Oracle ZDLRA offers specialized functionality for Oracle database recovery that can integrate well into this strategy—though many customers aren't aware of how effectively the two can work together. If your organization has invested in ZDLRA—a purpose-built solution for Oracle backups, albeit with limited visibility outside of the DBA team—you don’t need to treat it as a standalone silo. NetBackup can be integrated to reduce overall deployment cost, improve operational visibility, and enhance long-term retention and disaster recovery capabilities across the enterprise. Optimizing ZDLRA with NetBackup Instead of sizing ZDLRA to retain months or years of data—or replicating it across sites to meet compliance and DR requirements—you can configure ZDLRA for short-term retention (e.g., a few weeks). From there, NetBackup can take over for long-term storage, ensuring cost-efficiency and compliance with data protection policies. By installing the NetBackup client directly on ZDLRA nodes, NetBackup can orchestrate backups from ZDLRA to its own storage tiers, enabling deduplicated, efficient data movement and long-term retention. This hybrid approach is generally more cost-effective and operationally sustainable than over-sizing ZDLRA. Integration Steps: NetBackup + ZDLRA To integrate NetBackup with ZDLRA for seamless Oracle protection: Install the NetBackup client on the ZDLRA nodes. Allow NetBackup to auto-discover the Oracle RAC databases hosted on the ZDLRA nodes. Configure credentials for the discovered RAC databases in NetBackup. Create an Oracle policy in NetBackup using the “Clients for use with scripts” option. Update the existing backup scripts on ZDLRA to include the necessary NetBackup configuration for those databases. Once configured, NetBackup will treat those Oracle databases like any other client—protecting them with centralized policy management, broad visibility, and efficient long-term retention. More importantly, this setup ensures stakeholders across IT, compliance, and business continuity can access recovery insights—not just DBAs. It’s Not Either/Or—It’s Better Together There’s no need to choose between NetBackup and ZDLRA. When used together, they deliver a comprehensive, scalable Oracle protection strategy that balances performance, cost, and visibility. Organizations gain the flexibility to align with both DBA-centric recovery workflows and broader enterprise data protection policies.Simplifying MS-SQL Backup Administration with Credential Rules
In many organizations, new MS-SQL Servers are added frequently—often several times a month—and each addition typically triggers a support ticket to enable backups. Most customers have already automated the deployment of the NetBackup client as part of their standard server provisioning process. Previous versions of NetBackup offered Instance Groups to help manage this process. However, with the release of NetBackup 11, we’ve introduced two powerful new features that replace and significantly enhance that functionality: Credential Rules and Intelligent Queries. To back up MS-SQL instances, NetBackup must authenticate using valid credentials. Some organizations manage this with a single, centrally managed credential (often integrated with CyberArk), while others use different credentials based on environment (e.g., production vs. test) or location. Credential Rules automate the credential assignment process. They allow NetBackup or MS-SQL administrators to define policies that are automatically applied to newly discovered MS-SQL instances. Important Note: Credential Rules apply only to newly discovered systems—they do not retroactively assign credentials to previously credentialed systems. Example Scenario Let’s look at a simple example of how Credential Rules can streamline your workflow: Host.test.company.com – Test/Dev environment Host.prod.company.com – Production environment If your organization uses different credentials for production and test/dev environments, you can configure Credential Rules to apply the correct credentials automatically: Rule: Production Hostname ends with prod.company.com Apply: MS-SQL Production Credential Rule: Test Hostname ends with test.company.com Apply: MS-SQL Test Credential It’s that simple. Just configure your rules once, and NetBackup will handle new server additions automatically—ensuring new MS-SQL instances are protected from day one. Credential Rules are yet another way NetBackup helps you streamline data protection and reduce manual administrative overhead. More information is available in the NetBackup 11 documentation or just view the short video demo attached to this article.Protecting Oracle Databases with HCC Using Veritas NetBackup
As organizations continue to adopt Oracle Hybrid Columnar Compression (HCC) to achieve substantial data reduction and performance optimization for data warehousing workloads, it becomes increasingly critical to ensure robust protection strategies for these databases. Veritas NetBackup delivers comprehensive support for Oracle databases leveraging HCC, seamlessly integrating with Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) to enable high-performance, policy-driven backups that maintain data integrity across both HCC-enabled and non-HCC storage environments. NetBackup leverages RMAN’s block-level capabilities to perform efficient full and incremental backups of Oracle databases, including those utilizing HCC on Oracle-engineered systems like Exadata and ZFS Storage Appliances. Through tight RMAN integration, NetBackup preserves the compression format during backup, minimizing storage consumption and backup windows while supporting deduplication for further optimization. This allows database administrators to maintain their HCC benefits even in backup and recovery workflows, while centralizing control and reporting through NetBackup’s interface. In recovery scenarios, NetBackup supports full flexibility whether restoring to an HCC-capable system or to a non-HCC environment. When recovering to an HCC-compatible platform, the compressed data remains usable in its native format, preserving both performance and storage efficiency. If recovery is directed to a non-HCC destination—such as traditional file systems or third-party storage—the restore process completes successfully, but the data must be uncompressed before it can be accessed. Full guidance on these options is available in Oracle’s official documentation on restoring HCC tables. NetBackup ensures that backup and recovery operations remain consistent and reliable across both HCC and non-HCC environments.
Unlock the Power of your Infrastructure with NetBackup and Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization
Many customers are looking to modernize their legacy virtualization platforms to cloud-native infrastructures designed for the hybrid cloud. Red Hat OpenShift is the industry’s leading hybrid cloud application platform powered by Kubernetes, providing organizations with a comprehensive and consistent platform to develop, modernize, and deploy applications at scale. OpenShift does not natively provide the enterprise data protection you’ll need for your applications. This is where Veritas NetBackup comes in.Neutralize threat of cyber-attacks with NetBackup Flex Appliances
89% of all organizations have fallen victim to a successful ransomware attack resulting in unrecoverable data events. See how to significantly reduce the risk of a cyber--attack and recover confidently with an air-gapped turn-key appliance.Speeding Your Journey Down the Digital Highway
Does this scenario look complicated? Cars coming from all different locations, but ultimately trying to land in one central place. As more and more cars pile on to the highway, the time that it takes to get to your destination becomes longer and longer. And how do you get there safely?
Modern workloads need modern management and protection
Following the recent announcement that Veritas is extending its partnership with Nutanix, I reached out to my new colleague Andrew Brewerton, Director of Channels (Western Europe and Africa), to discuss one of the biggest challenges facing IT organisations today: how to manage and protect ‘modern workloads’.
Cloud Scale with NetBackup 10 and Amazon Web Services
Veritas delivers high-performance data management solutions that drive agility, efficiency, and cost savings for AWS workloads. See how NetBackup 10, powered by Veritas Cloud Scale Technology, is the industry's first cloud-optimized, at-scale data protection solution that delivers a more cost-effective, secure, and sustainable cloud with automated, elastic operations.Safe and Easy One-Click Upgrade of NetBackup Flex Scale
Want the latest security updates and features available in the newest NetBackup release? Learn how with one-click you can initiate an automated upgrade of both NetBackup and platform software on all nodes in your NetBackup Flex Scale cluster with rolling upgrades that provide minimal disruption and reduce risk with automatic rollback in case of error.
