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SnapCenter Software 5.0

Discover Oracle databases available for backup

Contributors netapp-soumikd netapp-jsnyder netapp-asubhas
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Resources are Oracle databases on the host that are managed by SnapCenter. You can add these databases to resource groups to perform data protection operations after you discover the databases that are available.

What you'll need

  • You must have completed tasks such as installing the SnapCenter Server, adding hosts, creating storage system connections, and adding credentials.

  • If the databases reside on a Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) or raw device mapping (RDM), you must deploy the SnapCenter Plug-in for VMware vSphere and register the plug-in with SnapCenter.

    For more information, see Deploy SnapCenter Plug-in for VMware vSphere.

  • If databases reside on a VMDK file system, you must have logged in to vCenter and navigated to VM options > Advanced > Edit configuration to set the value of disk.enableUUID to true for the VM.

  • You must have reviewed the process that SnapCenter follows to discover different types and versions of Oracle databases.

Step 1: Prevent SnapCenter from discovering non-database entries

You can prevent SnapCenter from discovering non-database entries added in the oratab file.

Steps

  1. After installing the plug-in for Oracle, the root user should create the sc_oratab.config file under the directory /var/opt/snapcenter/sco/etc/.

    Grant the write permission to the Oracle binary owner and group so that the file could be maintained in future.

  2. Database administrator should add the non-database entries in the sc_oratab.config file.

    It is recommended to maintain same format defined for the non-database entries in the /etc/oratab file or the user can just add the non-database entity string.

    Note The string is case sensitive. Any text with # in the beginning is treated as a comment. The comment can be appended after the non-database name. 
    For example:
--------------------------------------------
# Sample entries
# Each line can have only one non-database name
# These are non-database name
oratar  # Added by the admin group -1
#Added by the script team
NEWSPT
DBAGNT:/ora01/app/oracle/product/agent:N
-----------------------------------------------

  3. Discover the resources.

    The non-database entries added in the sc_oratab.config will not be listed in the Resources page.

Important It is always recommended to take a backup of the sc_oratab.config file before upgrading the SnapCenter plug-in.

Step 2: Discover resources

After installing the plug-in, all of the databases on that host are automatically discovered and displayed in the Resources page.

The databases should be at least in the mounted state or above for the discovery of the databases to be successful. In an Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) environment, the RAC database instance in the host where the discovery is performed, should be at least in the mounted state or above for the discovery of the database instance to be successful. Only the databases that are discovered successfully can be added to the resource groups.

If you have deleted an Oracle database on the host, SnapCenter Server will not be aware and will list the deleted database. You should manually refresh the resources to update the SnapCenter resources list.

Steps

  1. In the left navigation pane, click Resources, and then select the appropriate plug-in from the list.

  2. In the Resources page, select Database from the View list.

    Click filter icon, and then select the host name and the database type to filter the resources. You can then click the filter icon icon to close the filter pane.

  3. Click Refresh Resources.

    In a RAC One Node scenario, the database is discovered as the RAC database on the node where it is currently hosted.

Results

The databases are displayed along with information such as database type, host or cluster name, associated resource groups and policies, and status.

Important You must refresh the resources if the databases are renamed outside of SnapCenter.

  • If the database is on a non-NetApp storage system, the user interface displays a Not available for backup message in the Overall Status column.

    You cannot perform data protection operations on the database that is on a non-NetApp storage system.

  • If the database is on a NetApp storage system and not protected, the user interface displays a Not protected message in the Overall Status column.

  • If the database is on a NetApp storage system and protected, the user interface displays an Available for backup message in the Overall Status column.

Note If you have enabled an Oracle database authentication, a red padlock icon is shown in the resources view. You must configure database credentials to be able to protect the database or add it to the resource group to perform data protection operations.