Tag Archives: backup

MOVE_BACKUP and ZDLRA

As I wrote previously, sometimes we need to have long-term/archival backups due to some compliance. And usually, these backups are stores outside (like a vault/bunker) but for sure not at the same datacenter as the database. But how we can do this at ZDLRA?

In my post about COPY_BACKUP, I wrote how to have an external copy of one backup set at ZDLRA. But this is not the best option when we need to archive some backup because it continues to follow the same recovery window as the original backup set. This means that if you need to have some kind of archive for 5 years, you need to define your recovery window (at the policy level) to this window. And for sure this will put high pressure on space usage because all backups will be stored until became obsolete.

So, the best way is to use the KEEP backups from rman. And as I wrote in my previous post, they not interact/broke with the incremental forever strategy. Is possible to generate the keep backup, and using the DBMS_RA.MOVE_BACKUP moves these backups to a filesystem destination (and further you can copy/store) and archive it outside of ZDLRA.

Click here to read more…

KEEP backups and ZDLRA

KEEP backups from rman are used to provide long-term and archival retention. They are used to bypass the default policy retention and are used to sustain some regulations/compliances (like HIPAA, or others) that require archival retention. But with ZDLRA they are treated in a different way. Here I will show how the KEEP backups can impact your backup strategy for ZDLRA.

Click here to read more…

COPY_BACKUP at ZDLRA

As you know, ZDLRA is one appliance dedicated to provides you zero data loss in several (planned and unplanned) outages. All the backups are stored inside of the delta store to be processed, and they are deconstructed, meaning that the rman backup set does not exist (as is the formal backup set file).

But sometimes we need to copy/extract some backups outside of ZDLRA and copy it to the filesystem. Maybe because some regulations/compliances need to store for long-term/archival purposes. But some caveats are important to be explained.

Click here to read more…

ZDLRA, Dataguard, Archivelogs, and RMAN-08137

When configuring a database with Real-Time Redo at ZDLRA it is important to check the deletion policy for archivelog. This is even more important when the database is protected with dataguard. I already wrote about Real-time Redo in this previous post, and when using with dataguard in another post.  

But sometimes (during maintenance as an example) you can face the error RMAN-08137: warning: archived log not deleted, needed for standby or upstream capture process if the deletion policy of archivelog is not aligned with your needs.

Click here to read more…

ZDLRA, Manual Clone to Tape

In my previous post, I showed how the clone to tape occurs for ZDLRA. But as explained, the clones occur through the scheduler and follow some rules. For full backup, as an example, it clones the last available.

But sometimes,  it is needed to call the clone for some specific backup, maybe to do long-term storage to follow some regimentation/law. And if we leverage this for the clone, jobs can maybe take to long, or clone more that you need.

Click here to read more…

ZDLRA, OSB and Clone to Tape

As you saw in my last post, the configuration to enable clone to tape for ZDLRA it is not complicated, but you need to take care of some details to avoid errors. Besides that, ZDLRA relies on OSB to do that (when configured with native tape support) and this has some details that you need to be aware of.

In this post, I will show how the clone to tape works for ZDLRA. And how you can check some details about OSB.

Click here to read more…

ZDLRA, Configuring Tape Library

With ZDLRA you can clone your backups to tape using two ways. The first is using third-party software and the second is using Oracle Secure Backup (OSB). This integration from ZDLRA and OSB is the native way to do that.

Cloning backups to tape will help to offload backups from ZDLRA (reducing the space usage if you need to sustain long recovery windows), and add another layer of protection (since you can put tapes in a third site).

Here I will show how easy is to configure the OSB backup and how to integrate it into your backup policy.

Click here to read more…

ZDLRA, Protection Policies

For ZDLRA the protection policies have a significant role in the appliance management, but not just that, for the architecture design too. And usually (and unfortunately) policies do not take a lot of attention as deserved.

To create a good ZDLRA design, and avoid future problems, it is important to understand all the requirements for the protection policies and all the impacts. You can check the official documentation for this, but I will explain deeply the details that can pass without you notice them in the documentation.

Click here to read more…

RMAN, Allocate channel, CDB, and CLOSE: bug

Allocate channel for RMAN is used in various scenarios, most of the time is useful when you use tape as device type or you need to use some kind of format. The way to do the allocation not changed since a long time ago, but when you run the database in container mode you can hit a bug that turns your channel unusable. I will show you the bug and how to avoid it with a simple trick.

This bug hit every version since 12 and I discovered it last year when testing some scenarios, but I was able to test and post just recently. It just occurs for CDB databases and exists just one one-off solution published for 12.2. But there is one workaround more useful and works for every version.

The most interesting part is that everything that we made until now when allocate channel will not work. You can search in all doc available for allocate channel since 9i until 19c the first thing that you made after open the run{} is allocate channel. This is the default and recommended in the docs: for 19c, 18c, and 9i.

More…