Introducing Quest® NetVault® Backup Plug-in for Oracle
Quest NetVault Backup Plug-in for Oracle: at a glance
Key benefits
Feature summary
Target audience
Recommended additional reading
Defining a backup strategy
Defining a strategy: overview
Reviewing the available backup methods
Reviewing the supported Oracle file types
Defining an RMAN backup strategy
Installing and removing the plug-in
Choosing the location for the RMAN repository
Reviewing the RMAN Tablespace and Datafile backup types
Reviewing the Control File backup types
Reviewing the other backup types
Developing a Recovery Catalog backup strategy
Examples of backup sequences
Defining a Backup Destination strategy
Oracle Flashback technology
Prerequisites
Prerequisites for RMAN backups
Configuring the plug-in
Adding the Oracle user to the local administrator group on Windows
Determining the Oracle SID and Home directory in a non-RAC environment
Creating the RMAN repository
Recommended configuration for a single-instance non-RAC environment
Installing or upgrading the plug-in
Removing the plug-in
Configuring the Recovery Catalog database
Creating the Recovery Catalog owner
Creating the Recovery Catalog
Registering the target database
Enabling Control File Autobackups
Enabling Flashback Database
Enabling Block Change Tracking
Configuring a default Target Set for RMAN backups
Configuring default settings
Adding a database
Backing up data
Editing database information
Setting the database password
Removing a saved password
Removing a database
Viewing database details
Using RMAN Post-Backup Scripts
Language support
Performing User Managed backups
Performing RMAN backups
Using Plug-in for FileSystem to back up Oracle ACFS
Using the Oracle® Flashback Database
Flashback Database: an overview
Viewing Flashback Database status
Flashback Database options
Flashback Database restrictions
Restoring data with the plug-in and Flashback Database
Restoring data
Restoring and recovering data: an overview
Maintaining the Recovery Catalog
Using the RMAN CLI
Understanding User Managed recovery
Performing User Managed restores
Determining which datafiles require recovery
Recovering datafiles and archive logs
Restoring Control Files
Understanding RMAN recovery
Preparing the database for recovery
Selecting data for a restore
Finalizing and submitting the job
Recovering the database
Opening the database for use
Using advanced User Managed restore procedures
Renaming or relocating Control File, Datafile, or individual Archived Log files
Renaming or relocating the Archive Log Directory
Performing RMAN restores
Selecting data for a restore
Setting restore options
Using RMAN types of recovery in a non-RAC environment
Viewing the contents of backup pieces
Setting the Pre-Restore and general Restore Options
Setting recovery options
Setting Block Media Recovery options
Setting Post Recovery options
Setting Destination Details
Setting the Recovery Catalog details
Setting the Clone Database options
Setting Generate RMAN Script options
Finalizing and submitting the job
Restoring the Control File from an Autobackup
Recovering individual datafiles and tablespaces to the same server
Recovering Whole Database to same server
Performing disaster recovery with RMAN
Using advanced procedures with RMAN restores
Renaming or relocating files
Duplicating a database in a non-RAC environment
Restoring a Duplicate Database to the same server
Restoring a Duplicate Database to an alternate server with the same directory structure
Restoring a Duplicate Database to an alternate server with an alternate directory structure
Performing table-level recovery
CLI-based RMAN backups and restores: an overview
Prerequisites for CLI-based backups and restores
Using the Plug-in with Oracle® RAC
Verifying that the proper RMAN executable is in use (Linux only)
Ensuring an "SBT_TAPE" channel is established
Running the NetVault Backup 'nvpluginaccess' utility
Performing CLI-based backups
Example of a basic CLI backup
More parameters: the "format" clause
More parameters: the "send" and "PARMS" clauses
Querying the NetVault Backup media name
Performing CLI-based restores
Oracle RACs: an overview
Recommended additional reading
Defining a deployment strategy
Licensing
Installing the plug-in in a RAC environment
Configuring the plug-in
Using the Plug-in in a failover cluster environment
Configuring default attributes
Determining the local Oracle SID and Home directory in a RAC environment
Adding a database to the plug-in
Backing up data
Restoring data in a RAC environment
Oracle Server Fail Safe Failover Clustering: an overview
Installing the plug-in
Licensing the plug-in
Configuring the plug-in and adding a database
Backing up data
Restoring data
Using the plug-in with Oracle® Data Guard
Oracle® Data Guard: an overview
Defining a deployment strategy
Deployment
Troubleshooting
Single-instance to single-instance Data Guard deployment
Multi-instance RAC to single-instance Data Guard deployment
Multi-instance RAC to multi-instance RAC Data Guard deployment
Installing the plug-in in a Data Guard environment
Backing up data
Restoring data
Setting the Pre-Restore and general Restore Options
To continue, click the Restore Options tab.
|
• |
Pre-Restore Options: These options let you automatically prepare the database or tablespaces for the restore process during the plug-in’s restore job. |
|
• |
Whole Database Restore: Select this option if a complete database is being restored. |
|
• |
Tablespace/Datafile Restore: Select this option if individual or multiple tablespaces or datafiles are being restored. |
|
• |
Startup Database Nomount Before Restore: When restoring a Control File, the database must be in a NOMOUNT state. Select this option if you want the plug-in to put the database in a NOMOUNT state automatically before issuing the RMAN run block. |
|
• |
Mount Database Before Restore: When performing Whole Database or All Tablespaces restores, the database must be in a MOUNT state. Select this option if you want the plug-in to mount the database automatically before performing the restore and recovery. If this option is not selected, you must manually put the database in a MOUNT state before submitting the restore job to prevent the job from failing. |
|
• |
Shutdown Abort Database First: Available only when Mount Database Before Restore is selected. If the database is in an OPEN state, the database must be shut down before it can be opened in a MOUNT state. Select this option if you want the plug-in to run a SHUTDOWN ABORT command automatically before starting the database in a MOUNT state. If this option is not selected and the Mount Database Before Restore option is selected, the restore job fails if you do not manually shut down the database before submitting the job. |
|
• |
Alter Tablespaces Offline Before Restore: When restoring individual tablespaces or datafiles, the tablespace must be offline before the restore is performed. Select this option if you want the plug-in to run the ALTER TABLESPACE OFFLINE command automatically for each tablespace that is being restored. |
|
• |
Restore Options: These options pertain to the restore phase of Oracle®’s restore and recovery process. |
|
• |
Alter Tablespaces Online After Restore: When restoring individual tablespaces and datafiles, the tablespace must be returned to an online state after the restore and recovery is completed. Select this option if you want the plug-in to run the ALTER TABLESPACE ONLINE command automatically after the selected tablespaces are restored and recovered. This option enforces a recovery of the selected tablespace regardless of whether Perform Recovery is selected. |
|
• |
Include Recover Tablespace Clause: If you selected the Alter Tablespaces Online After Restore option, this option is selected by default, which ensures that the tablespaces are included in the recovery and brought online. Clear this option if you want to recover the tablespaces manually. |
|
• |
Check Read-Only Datafiles and Restore if Necessary: Select this option to include read-only datafiles in the restore. The read-only files are included only if they are needed to complete recovery. If they are not damaged, RMAN omits them. |
|
• |
Number of Channels: You can control the degree of parallelism within a restore job by allocating the desired number of channels. Allocating multiple channels simultaneously allows a single restore job to restore multiple backup sets in parallel. The number of channels should be less than or equal to the number of channels that was specified for the backup job. |
|
• |
Restore/Recover from User Defined Backup Tag: Select this option and enter a tag name to select backup sets from which to restore. Selecting this option is equivalent to the RMAN restore option FROM TAG="<tag_name>". This option overrides the default RMAN restore selection of the most recent backups or file copy available. This option also restricts the automatic selection to backup sets or file copies that were created with the specified tag. If multiple backup sets or file copies have a matching tag, RMAN selects the most recent backup set or file copy. Tag names are not case-sensitive. |
|
IMPORTANT: In a Data Guard environment, Quest recommends that you use the Restore/Recover from User Defined Backup Tag option to restrict the restore to backups taken from a particular Oracle Database Server. For more information, see Restoring data to an alternate server in a Data Guard environment. |
|
• |
Restore Source: Select the location that RMAN should use as the source for the restore. This option lets you speed up restores by ensuring that RMAN restores from the FRA even if the backup is also available on NetVault Backup media, that is, disk-based media, VTL, or tape. |
Alternately, the Restore Source option can ensure that RMAN restores from the NetVault Backup media when the FRA is suspected to have a media failure or data corruption. This option is useful when you do not want to risk restarting the restore and recovery process due to RMAN’s inability to restore from the FRA.
The following Restore Source options are available:
|
• |
Validate Restore: Validates the restore without restoring any data. The plug-in tells RMAN to select and confirm that the existing available backup sets are sufficient for the selected operation, such as an entire database restore or a single tablespace restore. This step ensures that the necessary backup sets are not corrupted and are usable. The following Validate Restore options are available: |
|
• |
Validate Restore Only: If this option is selected, only validation is performed. |
|
• |
Perform Restore if Validate Completes Without Errors: If this option is selected and the Validate Restore completes without errors, the restore is also performed. |
Setting recovery options
The plug-in supports the following types of Datafile Media Recovery. For more information on complete and incomplete database recovery, see Datafile media recovery.
Use the Perform Recovery tab to select the type of recovery and the recovery options that pertain the recovery phase of the process:
|
• |
Recovery Type: Use these options to select the type of recovery to perform. |
|
• |
Do Not Perform Recovery: Select this option if you want to restore the files but do not want to perform recovery. |
|
• |
Perform Complete Recovery: Select this option to recover an individual tablespace, multiple tablespaces, or the whole database to the most recent point, without the loss of any committed transactions. |
|
• |
Perform Tablespace Point in Time Recovery: Select this option to restore the datafiles of the tablespaces chosen on the NetVault Backup Selections tab to a specific point. Use a control (System Change Number Based, Log Sequence Based, or Time Based) to restore the datafiles to a specific SCN, log sequence, or time. Use the Auxiliary Destination control to define the location of the Oracle®-based automated auxiliary instance used to perform the recovery of the tablespaces. |
|
• |
Perform Table Level Point in Time Recovery: Select this option to recover specific tables to a specific point. Use a control (System Change Number Based, Log Sequence Based, or Time Based) to specify the point to recover to. Use the Auxiliary Destination, Recover table, and Remap table controls to provide additional options for the recovery-table task. For more information and examples, see Performing table-level recovery. |
|
• |
Perform Database Point in Time Recovery: Select this option if you need to return a database to its state at a past point. For example, to reverse the effect of a user error, such as dropping a table, you might want to return the database to its contents before the deletion occurred. |
The plug-in currently supports only DBPITR. You can use this option only with the Whole Database node on the Create Selection Set page. Enabling this option when restoring one or more datafiles or tablespaces causes the restore job to fail.
|
NOTE: DBPITR opens the database in RESETLOGS mode. When Perform Database Point in Time Recovery is selected, the options on the Post Recovery tab, described in Setting Post Recovery options, are not available because an OPEN mode is already part of the DBPITR. |
|
• |
Point-in-time controls: You can use one of the following options with the preceding options to specify a point to recover to. |
|
• |
System Change Number Based: For an SCN-based PIT Recovery, select this option, and specify the SCN until which the transactions must be recovered. RMAN recovers up to, but not including, the specified SCN. |
|
• |
Log Sequence Based: For a log-sequence-based PIT Recovery, select this option, and specify the terminating log sequence number and the thread to which it belongs. To identify the appropriate log sequence number and thread, you can query V$LOG_HISTORY to view the logs that have been archived. |
|
• |
Time Based: For a time-based PIT Recovery, select this option, and set the date and time in the fields provided. The plug-in recovers up to, but not including, the specified time. |
|
• |
Auxiliary Destination: Use this field to specify a directory — full path — that an Oracle®-based automated auxiliary instance uses as part of the PIT Recovery process. By default, this field lists a directory within the ORACLE_HOME directory. You can change this directory to any other location. This directory must exist before you run the recovery process. For more information, see Performing table-level recovery. |
|
• |
Recover table: Enter a comma-separated list of tables that you want to include in a table-level recovery. For more information, see Performing table-level recovery. |
|
• |
Remap table: Enter a comma-separated list of tables that you want to rename as a part of a table-level recovery. For more information, see Performing table-level recovery. |
|
• |
Perform Trial Recovery Only: Only available for Oracle 10g and later, Enterprise Edition databases. Select this option to perform a Trial Recovery, which you can use to determine whether a recovery succeeds or encounters problems or whether a previous recovery has encountered a problem. It lets you look ahead into the redo stream to detect possible problems. The Trial Recovery applies redo in a way similar to normal recovery, but it does not write changes to disk and it rolls back its changes at the end of the Trial Recovery. If errors are encountered during the Trial Recovery, they are logged in the Oracle Alert Log as test run errors. |
|
• |
Recovery Options: These options pertain to the recovery phase. |
|
• |
Check Read-Only Datafiles and Recover if Not Current: Used with the Check Read-Only Datafiles and Restore if Necessary Restore Option. Select this option to include read-only datafiles in the recovery process. The read-only files are included only if they are needed to complete recovery. If they are not damaged, RMAN omits them. |
|
• |
Delete Restored Archive Logs No Longer Needed: The plug-in copies the archived redo logs to the directory from which they were backed up. Select this option to delete the restored archive logs that Oracle deems unnecessary. |
Setting Block Media Recovery options
Use the options on the Block Media Recovery tab to specify that you want to perform Block Media Recovery. When Block Media Recovery is performed, the following should be noted:
|
• |
Objects selected on the Create Selection Set page are ignored. |
|
• |
Mount Database Before Restore and Shutdown Abort Database First options on the Restore Options tab are honored. |
|
• |
Options selected on the Post Recovery tab are honored. |
The Block Media Recovery tab contains the following options:
|
• |
Perform Block Media Recovery: Select this option to perform Block Media Recovery and recover only the corrupted blocks versus recovering the entire datafile. |
|
• |
Recover All Corrupted Blocks: Select this option to recover all the corrupted blocks that are reported in V$DATABASE_BLOCK_CORRUPTION. |
|
• |
Specify Corrupted Blocks to Recover: When you only want to recover a certain subset of the corrupted blocks, select this option. In the corresponding text box, enter the datafile number and block number of each of the corrupted blocks that you want to recover. Enter one datafile-block entry per line in the following format: |
In this example, <num> represents the datafile and block number to recover.
Setting Post Recovery options
When performing recovery using the Whole Database, All Tablespace, or Disaster Recovery options, the database is in a MOUNT state during the restore and recovery process. You must return the database to the OPEN state after completion. The plug-in provides the flexibility of opening the database automatically after the recovery process during the restore.
The Post Recovery tab includes the following options:
|
• |
Open Database after Recovery: Select this option to open the database automatically and make it available for normal use after the recovery process is completed during the restore. Selecting this option makes the following options available: |
|
• |
Read Write: Opens the database in read/write mode, which lets you generate redo logs. This option is the default if you are opening a primary database. |
|
• |
Read Write and Reset Logs: Opens the database in read/write mode and resets the current log sequence number to 1. It also archives any un-Archived Log files, including the current log, and discards any redo information that was not applied during recovery so that it is never applied. This option must be selected in the following situations: |
|
• |
After a previous OPEN RESETLOGS operation did not complete. |
|
• |
After a FLASHBACK DATABASE operation. |
|
• |
Read Only: Select this option to restrict users to read-only transactions, which prevents them from generating redo logs. This option is the default setting when you open a physical standby database, so that the physical standby database is available for queries even while archive logs are being copied from the primary database site. Oracle® has the following restrictions on opening a database with the Read Only option: |
|
• |
You cannot open a database in Read Only mode if it is opened in Read Write mode by a different instance. |
|
• |
You cannot open a database in Read Only mode if it requires recovery. |
|
• |
You cannot take tablespaces offline while the database is open in Read Only mode. However, you can take datafiles offline and online, and you can recover offline datafiles and tablespaces while the database is open in Read Only mode. |