NetVault Plug-in for Oracle 7.1

Running the ALTER DATABASE OPEN RESETLOGS command from RMAN versus SQL*Plus resets the target database automatically so that you do not have to run a RESET DATABASE. By resetting the database, RMAN considers the new incarnation as the current incarnation of the database. If you run ALTER DATABASE OPEN RESETLOGS from SQL*Plus and do not follow it with a RESET DATABASE at the RMAN prompt, RMAN refuses to access the Recovery Catalog because it cannot distinguish between a RESETLOGS operation and an accidental restore of an old Control File.


	IMPORTANT: After restoring the Control File from an Autobackup, Dell strongly recommends that you perform a Full or Incremental Level 0 backup with the database node selected on the NetVault Backup Selections page.

Recovering individual datafiles/tablespaces to the same server

This type of recovery is performed when the database is open, but some of the datafiles are damaged. This is useful when you want to recover the damaged tablespace, while leaving the database open so that the rest of the database remains available. You will only be able to perform Complete Recovery when restoring and recovering individual datafiles/tablespaces. PIT Recovery is not available for individual datafiles/tablespaces. Enabling PIT Recovery will cause the restore job to fail. Following is an overview of the process to recover individual datafiles/tablespaces:

On the Create Selection Set page, select the damaged datafiles/tablespaces from the latest available backup of the tablespace, and click Edit Plugin Options.

Click the Restore Options tab, and select the Alter Tablespaces Offline Before Restore and the Alter Tablespaces Online After Restore options.

On the Perform Recovery tab, select the applicable options:

•

To recover the tablespace to the current time, that is, last committed transaction available in the archive and online redo logs, select the Perform Complete Recovery option.

•

If you do not want to perform any recovery, select the Do Not Perform Recovery option.


	NOTE: If you select the Perform Database Point in Time Recovery option, the restore job will fail.

•

To delete the restored archive logs that Oracle deems unnecessary, select the Delete Restored Archive Logs No Longer Needed option.

Complete the Target Client, Schedule, and Advanced Options tabs, and submit the job.

RMAN will automatically choose the best available Full, Incremental, or Archive Log backups and restore and recover the tablespace.

Recovering Whole Database to same server

This type of recovery is performed when the current Control File and SPFILE are intact but all the datafiles are damaged or lost. You can perform a Complete Recovery or recover the database to a specific point-in-time. Following is an overview of the process to recover the whole database, which must be performed when the database is in a MOUNT state:

On the Create Restore Job - Choose Saveset page, find the latest available backup that included all the tablespaces, and click Next.

On the Create Selection Set page, navigate to the source NetVault Backup Client and database, select the Whole Database node, and click Edit Plugin Options.

Click the Restore Options tab, and select the applicable options:

•

To mount the database before the performing the restore, select Mount Database Before Restore.

•

To shut down the database automatically before mounting the database, select Shutdown Abort Database First.

•

To include read-only datafiles in the restore, select Check Read-Only Datafiles and Restore if Necessary.

To perform recovery on the database, that is, to reconstruct the database up to the current or specified point-in-time, select one of the following options on the Perform Recovery tab:

•

Perform Complete Recovery – Recovers the database to the current time, that is, to the last committed transaction available in the archived and online redo logs.

•

Perform Point-in-Time Recovery – Recovers the database to a specific point-in-time whether it be a specific time, log sequence number, or SCN.

On the Perform Recovery tab, select these additional options, if applicable:

•

To include read-only datafiles in the recovery process, select Check Read-Only Datafiles and Recover if Not Current. The read-only files are included only if they are needed to complete recovery. If they are not damaged, RMAN omits them.

•

To delete the restored archive logs that Oracle deems unnecessary, select Delete Archive Logs No Longer Needed.

On the Post Recovery tab, select Open Database after Recovery and Read Write and Reset Logs to open the database automatically in read-write mode and reset the online logs.

Complete the Target Client, Schedule, and Advanced Options tabs, and submit the job.

RMAN will automatically choose the best available full, incremental, or Archived Log backups and restore and recover the database.


	IMPORTANT: After completing a restore of the Whole Database, Dell strongly recommends that you perform a Full or Incremental Level 0 backup with the database selected on the Create Selection Set page.

Performing disaster recovery with RMAN

Disaster recovery includes the restore and recovery of a database after the loss of the entire target database, all current Control Files, all online redo log files, and all parameter files. It is also assumed that the FRA has been lost. To perform a disaster recovery, the minimum required set of backups includes backups of all the datafiles, some archived redo logs generated after the time of the backup, and at least one Autobackup of the Control File.

If your goal is to create a new copy of your target database for ongoing use on a new host, do not use these procedures. Instead, use the Duplicate Database backup type, which is designed for this purpose. For more information, see Duplicate Database backup.


	IMPORTANT: To reduce the possibility of selecting an option that might overwrite the database and result in a loss of data, use extreme caution when selecting any of the options discussed in the following sections and before performing any disaster recovery process.

The following methods are available for performing a disaster recovery:

•

Using the Stepwise Disaster Recovery process

•

Disaster recovery to same server

•

Retrieving a Control File manually

Important notes

When performing a disaster recovery of any kind, be aware of the following:

•

When performing a test recovery, ensure that you do not connect to the Recovery Catalog during datafile restoration. Otherwise, RMAN will record information about the restored datafiles to the Recovery Catalog. This interferes with future attempts to restore and recover the primary database. If you must use a Recovery Catalog because the Control File is not large enough to contain the RMAN repository data on all the backups that you need to restore, export the catalog and import it into a different schema or database, and use the copied Recovery Catalog for the test restore. Otherwise, the catalog considers the restored database as the current target database.

•

Using a disaster recovery procedure in an Oracle Database environment that is not intended for disaster recovery might result in data loss in the database. Do not use a disaster recovery procedure to restore or recover individual datafiles or archive logs, or if you only intend to restore an Oracle Database SPFILE or a Control File.

•

Perform a disaster recovery only when it involves the whole database, SPFILE, and Control File. Existing data might be lost in the database, because a disaster recovery procedure overwrites it.

•

The commands issued by the Stepwise Disaster Recovery feature include a small subset of the options available in an Oracle Database Server to perform a disaster recovery. For more advanced options, or a targeted disaster recovery, Dell strongly recommends that you use the plug-in's documented RMAN CLI procedures. Because the Stepwise Disaster Recovery feature does not use the full range of recovery options, it might not complete successfully. If not, use the RMAN CLI process to perform the recovery.

Using the Stepwise Disaster Recovery process

This process executes a restore of the Control File from an Autobackup and restores the database datafiles using the same restore task. If you use this process, be aware of the following:

•

Objects selected the Create Selection Set page are ignored.

•

All other restore- and recovery-related options are ignored.

•

Only the options selected on the Stepwise Disaster Recovery tab are executed.

To use this process

In the Navigation pane, click Create Restore Job.

On the Create Restore Job - Choose Saveset page, select Plug‑in for Oracle from the Plugin Type list.

To filter the items displayed in the saveset table further, use the Client, Date, and Job ID lists.

The table displays the saveset name (Job Title and Saveset ID), creation date and time, and size. By default, the list is sorted alphabetically by saveset name.

In the saveset table, select the applicable item.

When you select a saveset, the following details are displayed in the Saveset Information area: Job ID, Job Title, name of the NetVault Backup Server, name of the client from which the data was backed up, plug-in used to create the saveset, saveset creation date and time, saveset retirement setting, whether it is an Incremental Backup, whether it is an Archive, and saveset size.

To continue, click Next.

On the Create Selection Set page, select any item.

As explained earlier, selections on this page will be ignored for this process.

Click Edit Plugin Options, and then click the Stepwise Disaster Recovery tab.

Select the Perform the following Step-by-Step Disaster Recovery option, and then select the applicable suboptions:

•

Set Dbid – If you want to specify the DBID, select this option. The plug-in automatically enters the DBID of the Oracle Database for which the backup was taken in this field. The DBID is needed when a parameter file or SPFILE is not available to start the Oracle Database in a NOMOUNT state.

•

Restore Spfile from Autobackup; Look Back Max Days – If the Oracle Control File Autobackup option was enabled in your scheduled backups and you want to restore the SPFILE from an Autobackup, select this option. (If Oracle Control File Autobackup was not enabled, you cannot restore the SPFILE from an Autobackup. For more information, see Enabling Control File Autobackups.) By default, this option looks for Autobackups in the last seven days; update it as applicable. This option issues the following RMAN commands:

STARTUP NOMOUNT;

restore spfile from autobackup maxdays <NumberOfDays>;

•

Restore Controlfile from Autobackup; Look Back Max Days – If the Oracle Control File Autobackup option was enabled in your scheduled backups and you want to restore the Control File from an Autobackup, select this option. (If Oracle Control File Autobackup was not enabled, you cannot restore the Control File from an Autobackup. For more information, see Enabling Control File Autobackups.) By default, this option looks for Autobackups in the last seven days; update it as applicable. This option issues the following RMAN commands:

STARTUP FORCE NOMOUNT;

restore controlfile from autobackup maxdays <NumberOfDays>;

•

Restore Database – If you want to restore all datafiles included in the Oracle Database, select this option. A restore database command will attempt to restore all the datafiles in the Oracle database. This option issues the following RMAN command:

RESTORE DATABASE;

•

Recover Database – If you want to recover all datafiles included in the Oracle Database, select this option. A recover database command will attempt to recover all the datafiles in the Oracle database. This might include automatically restoring and applying archived transaction logs. This option issues the following RMAN command:

RECOVER DATABASE;

•

Alter Database Open Resetlogs – If you want to open the database with the RESETLOGS option, select this option. This option issues the following SQL*Plus command:

ALTER DATABASE OPEN RESETLOGS;


	NOTE: With the database restored, you have the option of opening an RMAN CLI prompt and issuing the recovery commands from the prompt. This eliminates the need to select the Recover Database and Alter Database Open Resetlogs options and lets you issue advanced recovery options.

Complete the steps in Finalizing and submitting a job.

Disaster recovery to same server

The following procedure details the steps to perform disaster recovery to the same server where the source database resided. This procedure would be used in the scenario in which a complete media failure occurred and either the damaged host was rebuilt using the same configuration or a new server was configured imitating the original host’s configuration, including host name.


	NOTE: You can also use the following procedure to restore the Oracle Server to a different host (one that is not the original production server) while the production server is still active. However, as stated previously, if your goal is create a copy of the target production database for ongoing use on a new host, do not use this procedure. Instead, use the Duplicate Database backup type. For more information, see Duplicate Database backup.

The same procedure should be used whether or not a Recovery Catalog was being used as part of the backup strategy for the RMAN Repository. RMAN always stores information concerning the backups in records in the Control File. The version of this information in the Control File is the authoritative record of RMAN’s backups of your database. RMAN can conduct all necessary backup and recovery operations using just the repository information in the Control File.

For variations on the following disaster recovery procedure, refer to Performing Disaster Recovery in the Oracle Database Backup and Recovery Advanced User’s Guide.

To perform a disaster recovery without a Recovery Catalog, the following requirements must be met:

•

Oracle Database software installed – Install the same version of the Oracle database software on the system as existed on the damaged server. The ORACLE_HOME should be identical on both the source and destination Oracle server. You do not have to create the database.

•

Oracle password file created – Create the Oracle password file via the orapwd utility.

•

On Linux platforms:

orapwd file=<Oracle_Home>/dbs/orapw<SID> password=<password>

•

On Windows platforms:

orapwd file=<Oracle_Home>\database\orapw<SID> password=<password>

•

Oracle service on Windows created and started – Create the Oracle Service on Windows with Oracle’s oradim utility. The Oracle SID should be identical to the original or source database. This creates an identical Oracle Service name. For example, from an OS prompt execute:

oradim -new -sid <sid_name>

After the Windows service is created, start the service with the following command from an OS prompt:

net start oracleservice<sid_name>

•

NetVault Backup software and Plug‑in for Oracle installed – The same version of NetVault Backup software and the plug-in must be installed and configured as it originally existed on the damaged server. Ensure that the plug-in’s default attributes are defined as specified in Configuring default settings.

•

DBID of the source database identified – Identify the DBID of the damaged database. If the DBID was not recorded as part of the initial Plug‑in for Oracle installation, look for it in the NetVault Backup binary logs for RMAN-based backups of the source database. The DBID is also available on the Details dialog or the Backup Contents tab.

•

Default location for SPFILE must exist – Make sure that the default location for the SPFILE exists. Failure to do so will result in an ORA-17502 Failed to create file error during the SPFILE restore.

•

Backups of all tablespaces made available – Make sure that you have the latest backups of all the tablespaces.

To perform the recovery

Restore the Oracle Net Services Configuration Files.

If the External Configuration Files were included in a previous RMAN backup or the Plug-in for FileSystem was used to back up the Oracle Net Services configuration files (such as “listener.ora,” “sqlnet.ora,” and “tnsnames.ora”), restore the files to the destination Oracle Database Server. Otherwise, configure the Oracle Net Services on the destination Oracle server.

Start the Oracle listener.

For example, from an OS command prompt run:

lsnrctl start

Start RMAN with no catalog, and connect to the target database:

RMAN TARGET / NOCATALOG

Set the DBID to the damaged database DBID.

SET DBID <Source_DBID>;

Start the target instance without mounting the database.


	IMPORTANT: A series of Oracle errors might appear if a PFILE is not available when you execute the following command. This is acceptable, and you can ignore the errors. Oracle uses a default PFILE to ensure that the restore process for the SPFILE continues (“starting Oracle instance without parameter file for retrieval of spfile”).

STARTUP NOMOUNT;

Restore the SPFILE from Autobackup.

RUN {

ALLOCATE CHANNEL C1 TYPE 'SBT_TAPE';

RESTORE SPFILE FROM AUTOBACKUP;

}

Restart the database with the restored SPFILE.

STARTUP FORCE NOMOUNT;

Restore the Control File from Autobackup.

If you are restoring the Control File from the last Autobackup, execute:

RUN {

ALLOCATE CHANNEL CH1 TYPE 'SBT_TAPE';

RESTORE CONTROLFILE FROM AUTOBACKUP;

}


	IMPORTANT: If you do not have an Autobackup of the Control File, complete the steps in Retrieving a Control File manually before continuing.

On the Create Restore Job - Choose Saveset page, find the latest available backup that included all the tablespaces, and click Next.

On the Create Selection Set page, navigate to the source NetVault Backup Client and database, select the Whole Database node, and click Edit Plugin Options.

Click the Restore Options tab, and select the applicable options:

•

To mount the database before the performing the restore, select Mount Database Before Restore.

•

To include read-only datafiles in the restore, select Check Read-Only Datafiles and Restore if Necessary.

Because recovery must be performed in a disaster recovery scenario, on the Perform Recovery tab, select Perform Database Point-in-Time Recovery.

PIT Recovery recovers the database to a specific time, log sequence number, or SCN. If the specific time or log sequence of the failure is not known, Dell recommends that you use the SCN option.

On the Perform Recovery tab, select Check Read-Only Datafiles and Recover if Not Current 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.

On the Recovery Catalog tab, clear the Use Catalog option to ensure that the Recovery Catalog is not used for this restore.

Complete the Schedule and Advanced Options tabs, and submit the job.

RMAN will automatically choose the best available Full, Incremental, or Archive Log backups and restore and recover the database.

In RMAN, update the RMAN metadata.

CROSSCHECK ARCHIVELOG ALL;

Exit RMAN.


	IMPORTANT: After completing a disaster recovery, Dell strongly recommends that you perform a Full or Incremental Level 0 backup with the database selected on the Create Selection Set page.

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Recommended Solutions for Your Problem

NetVault Plug-in for Oracle 7.1 - User Guide

Using RMAN types of recovery in a non-RAC environment

Recovering individual datafiles/tablespaces to the same server

Recovering Whole Database to same server

Performing disaster recovery with RMAN