The prerequisites for Oracle database protection with Backup and DR include:
Review the concepts in OS authentication versus database authentication and Oracle RMAN backup in a file system or in an ASM disk group.
Prepare the database according to the steps in Prepare Oracle databases for protection.
| Step | Where | What | These procedures are in: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The database server | Install or upgrade the Backup and DR agent. Always use the most recent Backup and DR agent. | Obtain the right Backup and DR agent for your host |
| 2 | Management console > Manage > Hosts | The database server must be added as a host or as a VM. | Add host. |
| 3 | Management console Oracle databases wizard | Use the onboarding wizard to discover and protect the database. | Discover and protect Oracle applications. |
| 4 | Backup plans | You need one or more suitable backup templates and resource profiles for the database. | Policy overrides for Oracle databases |
| 5 | App manager | There are many Oracle-specific Application Details & Settings that must be set. | Application details and settings for Oracle databases |
Oracle OS user
The database instance should be running as Oracle OS user who owns the Oracle binary. If the database instance is running as different OS user account than the Oracle OS owner, make sure the OS user running the database instance has the same group access privileges as the Oracle OS owner.
OS authentication versus database authentication
The following sections provide information on the differences between Backup and DR using OS authentication versus database authentication.
By default, a host uses OS authentication. You can choose to use OS or DB authentication for a Linux host. For a Windows host, only OS authentication is available.
Backup and DR using OS authentication
OS authentication requires no database user account and no service name.
Backup and DR uses / as sysdba to connect to the database.
From the management console Application Details and Settings, you can validate the authentication configuration.
Backup and DR using database authentication
Oracle database authentication uses Oracle database credentials. With Oracle database authentication, you must provide database credentials to connect to the database with sysdba privilege—or sysbackup for Oracle 12c and later.
Use the following instructions to enable Oracle database authentication:
In the management console, click the Manage drop-down menu and select Hosts.
Right-click the database server to authenticate against and click Edit.
On the Edit Host page, slide the Use Oracle Database Authentication button to the right. Backup jobs use Database Authentication for all databases on that database server. This requires a database user account under Application Details & Settings for the backup to succeed.
Go to the App Manager and right-click a database on the host that you just enabled for database authentication then select Manage Backup Plan.
At the top of the page, click Details and Settings.
Scroll to Authentication and enter the credentials. Validate the configuration, and then fill in other settings as required.
Repeat step four through step six for each database that is managed from this database server.
Oracle RMAN backup in a file system or in an ASM disk group
Oracle database backup has different properties depending on whether the images are protected from:
File system: For all source database configurations other than Oracle ASM, the backup is under a file system. See Back up an Oracle database with data files on a file system.
ASM disk group: If a source database configuration is using ASM, the backup is in an ASM disk group. For more information on protecting an Oracle database under an Oracle ASM disk group, see Back up an Oracle database with data files on an ASM disk group. Be sure to refer to Application details and settings.
Back up an Oracle database with data files on a file system
This section provides information on backing up an Oracle database with data files on a file system.
Backup and DR staging disk on the file system
When you back up an Oracle database with data files on a file system, a Backup and DR staging disk is mapped to the Oracle server—protected node. A new file system based on the file system on the OS is created on the Backup and DR staging disk—for example, if the source database is on Linux ext4, an ext4 file system is created.
RMAN image copies of all data files for the entire database is captured on a Backup and DR presented file system. A snapshot of the staging disk is taken.
dNFS is supported, see Configure dNFS for protecting and mounting virtual Oracle databases.
Backup and DR staging disk on an ASM disk group
To protect a specific file system database to ASM Disk group format, in Application Details & Settings check the Convert file system format to Oracle ASM format checkbox. This requires ASM to be installed and running on the protected database node.
When you capture a file system Oracle database image under an Oracle ASM disk group, a Backup and DR staging disk is mapped to the Oracle database server and presented to the Oracle ASM layer. An ASM backup disk group is created under ASM using a mapped disk.
Back up an Oracle database with data files on an ASM disk group
This section provides information on backing up an Oracle database with data files on an ASM disk group.
Backup and DR staging disk on an ASM disk group
When you back up an Oracle database that has data files on an ASM disk group, a Backup and DR staging disk is mapped to the Oracle database server and presented to the Oracle ASM layer. An ASM backup disk group is created under ASM using a mapped disk.
The RMAN image copy of all data files for the entire database is captured on a Backup and DR-presented ASM disk group retaining the ASM header information. A snapshot of the staging disk with ASM header information is taken.
The Application Details & Settings to present the Backup and DR staging disk to individual or all RAC member nodes are the following:
Auto discover RAC members: Select this setting if you want Backup and DR to auto-discover RAC nodes rather than enter the public IP addresses manually. If auto discovery is selected, then the Backup and DR staging disk is presented to all RAC member nodes.
RAC member nodes: Provide the public IP addresses of the RAC member nodes that you want to present the Backup and DR staging disk to. This is not necessary if you use Auto discover RAC members.
To learn more, see Application details and settings for Oracle databases.
To run the backup from more than one node, configure tnsnames as described in Configure Parallel RMAN Image Copy from Multiple Nodes. For best results, pay attention to ASM scalability and limits (from Oracle Doc ID 370921.1)
Backup and DR staging disk on a file system
To protect an ASM database to a file system format, go to Application Details & Settings and select Yes under Convert ASM format to filesystem format.
The Backup and DR staging disk is mapped to the Oracle server—protected node. A new file system based on the file system on the OS is created on the Backup and DR staging disk—for example, if the source database is on Linux ext4, an ext4 file system is created.
RMAN image copies of all data files for the entire database are captured on a Backup and DR presented file system. A snapshot of the staging disk is taken.
dNFS is supported, see Configure dNFS for protecting and mounting virtual Oracle databases.