NetBackup™ for Oracle Administrator's Guide

Media and device management

All devices that the Media Manager supports are available to NetBackup for Oracle.

Scheduling facilities

NetBackup scheduling facilities on the master server can be used to schedule automatic and unattended Oracle backups.

This feature also lets you choose the times when these operations can occur. For example, to prevent interference with normal daytime operations, you can schedule your database backups to occur only at night.

Multiplexed backups and restores

NetBackup for Oracle lets you take advantage of NetBackup's multiplexing capabilities. Multiplexing directs multiple data streams to one backup device, thereby reducing the time necessary to complete the operation.

Transparent Oracle and regular file system backup and restore operations

All backups and restores run simultaneously and transparently without any action from the NetBackup administrator. The database administrator can run database backup and restore operations through NetBackup. An administrator or any other authorized user can use NetBackup to run database backups and restores.

If you use the command line interface or scripts, you must use script-based Oracle policies. These policies use Oracle's Recovery Manager (RMAN) as if NetBackup were not present.

Oracle Instance management

An Oracle instance discovery service automatically polls the clients throughout the NetBackup environment every five minutes. The service collects the discovered instances in an instance repository. The user can view the instances on the NetBackup Administration Console or by using the nboraadm command.

You can create the instance groups that each contain a set of instances that are registered with a common set of credentials. A default instance group can be created for the newly discovered instances that are then automatically registered into this group.

You select Oracle instances and instance groups to be part of an Oracle backup policy. You can create the policy for the default instance group to make sure that all newly created instances are automatically protected.

Oracle DBAs can use the nboraadm command on the NetBackup client to manage instances, instance groups, and their credentials. This command is very useful in environments where the Oracle credentials are known only by the DBAs and not by the NetBackup administrators.

Sharing the same storage units that are used for other file backups

You can share the same devices and media that are used for other backups or give Oracle exclusive use of certain devices and media. NetBackup for Oracle can use the Media Manager, disk, or Media Server Deduplication Pool (MSDP) storage units.

Centralized and networked backup operations

From the NetBackup master server, you can schedule database backups or start them manually for any client or instance. The Oracle databases can also reside on the hosts that are different from the devices on which NetBackup stores the backups.

Graphical user interfaces

Parallel backup and restore operations

NetBackup for Oracle supports the parallel backup and restore RMAN capabilities. For example, you can run more than one tape device at a time for a single Oracle backup or restore. This capability reduces the time necessary to complete the operation.

Compression

Compression increases backup performance over the network and reduces the size of the backup image that NetBackup writes to the storage unit.

Support for Replication Director

Replication director can be used to create snapshots of the Oracle database. The snapshots can then be replicated to other NetApp disk arrays or backup the snapshot to a storage unit. To use Replication Director, the Oracle database must exist on a NetApp NAS disk array. Replication Director is not supported on SAN storage at this time.

Oracle snapshot backups that use Replication Director are supported on UNIX and Linux platforms only.

Support on a NetBackup appliance for backup to an appliance share (NetBackup Copilot for Oracle)

Oracle Copilot enhances the Oracle Intelligent Policy by giving you options for protecting an Oracle database using a share on a NetBackup appliance. This feature gives you better control of backups when an Oracle database backup is placed in a database share by the DBA. This feature also lets you choose a database share as the destination for the first backup copy. The backup copy is a full set of database data file copies created, incrementally updated, and protected by NetBackup. You must create a share on the appliance for this option using the NetBackup Appliance Shell Menu.

Oracle backups only work on an NFS share on the NetBackup appliance.

For more information about how to set up the share, see Creating a share from the NetBackup Appliance Shell Menu in the NetBackup 52xx and 5330 Appliance Administrator's Guide.

Immediate backup for Oracle DBA

The Oracle DBA can start an immediate backup from the client using the nboraadm -immediate command. The Oracle DBA can start the backup instead of waiting for the backup to be initiated based on the NetBackup schedule. This command option is useful if the Oracle DBA wants to perform a backup before maintenance. The command must be initiated from the client where the instance resides.

Support for Container and Pluggable databases

Oracle 12c introduced the container databases (CDB) and pluggable databases (PDB). The Oracle Intelligent Policy is enhanced and allows a backup to include single or multiple PDBs.

This feature also lets you select one or more Oracle 12c instances along with non-Oracle 12c instances in OIP.

Full Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) support in Oracle Intelligent Policies

NetBackup supports Oracle RAC when you set up an Oracle policy in the NetBackup web UI. The NetBackup Administration Console does not have support for Oracle RAC policy setup. However, this manual contains all information for creating an Oracle RAC policy that applies to the policy creation in the web UI. The NetBackup Web UI Administrator's Guide contains the instructions to add an Oracle RAC.

Oracle RAC load balanced backups

The NetBackup web UI has the ability to load balance the Oracle RAC database during a backup. The NetBackup Web UI Administrator's Guide contains the information for load balancing.

NetBackup Dedupe Direct for Oracle

NetBackup Dedupe Direct for Oracle offers a lightweight plug-in for RMAN backups to MSDP storage.

The Oracle database administrator can control the whole protection and life-cycle stages without NetBackup client. It also enables client-side deduplication to minimize network traffic and improves overall backup speed.