NetVault Plug-in for Oracle 10.0.5

Creating the RMAN repository

As discussed in Choosing the location for the RMAN repository, for an RMAN backup strategy you must first choose a location for the RMAN repository. By default, this repository is maintained in the Control File. However, for larger or more mission-critical databases, create a Recovery Catalog database that can store a much longer history than the Control File.

Creating a Recovery Catalog is a three-step process: configure the database that will contain the Recovery Catalog, create the Recovery Catalog owner, and then create the Recovery Catalog itself.

Configuring the Recovery Catalog database

When you use a Recovery Catalog, RMAN requires that you maintain a Recovery Catalog schema. The Recovery Catalog is stored in the default tablespace of the schema. SYS cannot be the owner of the Recovery Catalog. Decide which database you want to use to install the Recovery Catalog schema. Dell recommends that you create a separate database for the Recovery Catalog and run the catalog database in ARCHIVELOG mode.

Next, allocate space to be used by the catalog schema. The size of the Recovery Catalog schema depends on the number of databases managed by the catalog. The schema also grows as the number of archived redo log files and backups for each database increases. For more information on sizing the Recovery Catalog schema, see Planning the Size of the Recovery Catalog Schema in the Oracle® Database Backup and Recovery Advanced User’s Guide.

Creating the Recovery Catalog owner

After choosing the Recovery Catalog database and creating the necessary space, perform the following steps to create the owner of the Recovery Catalog and grant this user the necessary privileges:

Start SQL*Plus, and connect with administrator privileges to the database that will contain the Recovery Catalog.

sqlplus SYS/<password>@<connect_identifier> AS SYSDBA

Create a user and schema for the Recovery Catalog.

For example, enter:

CREATE USER rman IDENTIFIED BY <password>

TEMPORARY TABLESPACE temp

DEFAULT TABLESPACE tools

QUOTA UNLIMITED ON tools;

Grant the RECOVERY_CATALOG_OWNER role to the schema owner.

This role provides the user with all privileges required to maintain and query the Recovery Catalog.

GRANT RECOVERY_CATALOG_OWNER TO rman;

Grant the CONNECT role to the rman user.

GRANT CONNECT TO rman;

Creating the Recovery Catalog

After creating the catalog owner, create the catalog tables with the RMAN CREATE CATALOG command. This command creates the catalog in the default tablespace of the catalog owner.

Connect to the database that will contain the catalog as the catalog owner.

For example:

> rman CONNECT CATALOG rman/<password>@<connect_identifier_for_catalog>

Run the CREATE CATALOG command to create the catalog.

The creation of the catalog can take several minutes.

If the catalog tablespace is this user’s default tablespace, you can run this command:

CREATE CATALOG;

You can also specify the tablespace name for the catalog in the CREATE CATALOG command. For example:

CREATE CATALOG TABLESPACE <tablespace_name>;

Registering the target database

The first step in using a Recovery Catalog with a target database is registering the database in the Recovery Catalog.

To register a target database:

After making sure that the Recovery Catalog database is open, connect RMAN to the target database and Recovery Catalog database.

For example, issue the following command to connect to the catalog database.

> rman TARGET / CATALOG rman/<password>@<connect_identifier_for_catalog>

If the target database is not mounted, mount or open it:

STARTUP MOUNT;

RMAN creates rows in the catalog tables to contain information about the target database. RMAN then copies all pertinent data about the target database from the Control File into the catalog, synchronizing the Catalog with the Control File.

Verify that the registration was successful.

REPORT SCHEMA

Registering multiple databases in a Recovery Catalog

You can register multiple target databases in a single Recovery Catalog, if they do not have duplicate DBIDs. RMAN uses the DBID to distinguish one database from a different database.

In a Data Guard environment, only the primary database is registered in the Recovery Catalog.

Enabling Control File Autobackups

Control File Autobackups are required for disaster recovery with the plug-in. For more information on Control File Autobackups, see Reviewing the Control File backup types. For more information on multi-instance RAC databases, see Enabling Control File Autobackups in a RAC environment.

You can turn on the Autobackup feature by running the following commands from the RMAN command-line utility:

After making sure that the Recovery Catalog database is open, connect RMAN to the target database and Recovery Catalog database.

For example, issue the following commands to connect to the catalog database:

> rman TARGET / CATALOG rman/<password>@<connect_identifier for catalog>

Optionally, you can use the following commands to change the autobackup format. The default format for Control File Autobackup is “%F”.

CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT FOR DEVICE

TYPE <device type> TO '<string>'

– or –

SET CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT FOR DEVICE TYPE <device type> TO '<string>'

The SET CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT command overrides the configured autobackup format in the current session only.

If you modify the default format for the autobackups, you must specify the same format during a restore.

Configure the default device type to “SBT_TAPE”.

CONFIGURE DEFAULT DEVICE TYPE TO 'SBT_TAPE';

Enable Control File Autobackups.

CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP ON;

Confirm that Control File Autobackups are enabled by reviewing the RMAN configuration settings.

SHOW ALL;

Enabling Flashback Database

Flashback Database lets you rewind an Oracle® database to a previous time to correct problems caused by logical data corruptions or user errors as long as the datafiles are intact. For more information on Flashback Database, see Oracle Flashback technology.

Flashback Database uses its own logging mechanism, creating Flashback Logs and storing them in the FRA. You can only use Flashback Database if Flashback Logs are available. To take advantage of this feature, set up your database in advance to create Flashback Logs.

To determine whether Flashback Database is enabled:

Start SQL*Plus, and connect with administrator privileges to the database.

sqlplus SYS/<password>@<connect_identifier> AS SYSDBA

From the SQL> prompt, enter:

select flashback_on from v$database;

The output shows the status of Flashback Database.

To enable Flashback Database, you must first configure an FRA. For more information, see Enabling the Flash Recovery Area in the Oracle Database Backup and Recovery User’s Guide.

After ensuring that FRA is configured, perform the following steps to set a flashback retention target. This retention target specifies how far back you can rewind a database with Flashback Database. From the target time onwards, the database regularly copies images of every changed block in the datafiles to the Flashback Logs.

Start SQL*Plus, and connect with administrator privileges to the database.

sqlplus SYS/<password> AS SYSDBA

From the SQL> prompt, shut down and mount the database: