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Back up cloud-native Oracle databases

Contributors netapp-soumikd

You can create scheduled or on-demand backups by assigning a pre-canned policy or the policy that you created.

You can also catalog the Oracle database backups using Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) if you have enabled cataloging while creating a policy. The (RMAN) cataloging is supported only for the databases that are on Azure NetApp Files. The cataloged backups can be used later for block-level restore or tablespace point-in-time recovery operations. The database must be in mounted or higher state for cataloging.

Create policy to protect Oracle database

You can create policies if you do not want to edit the pre-canned policies.

Steps

  1. In the Applications page, from the Settings drop-down list, select Policies.

  2. Click Create policy.

  3. Specify a policy name.

  4. (Optional) Edit the format of the backup name.

  5. Specify the schedule and retention details.

  6. If you have selected daily and weekly as the schedule and you want to enable RMAN cataloging, select Catalog backup with Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN).

  7. (Optional) Enter the post-script path and timeout value for post-script that will be executed after the successful backup such as copying the snapshot to secondary storage.

    Optionally, you can also specify the arguments.

    You should keep the post-scripts in the path /var/opt/snapcenter/spl/scripts.

    The post script supports a set of environment variables.

    Environmental Variable Description

    SC_ORACLE_SID

    Specifies the SID of the Oracle database.

    SC_HOST

    Specifies the hostname of the database

    SC_BACKUP_NAME

    Specifies the name of the backup. The data backup name and the log backup name are concatenated using delimiters.

    SC_BACKUP_POLICY_NAME

    Specifies the name of the policy used to create the backup.

    SC_PRIMARY_DATA_VOLUME_FULL_PATH

    Specifies the data volume paths concatenated using "," as delimiter.
    For Azure NetApp Files volumes, the information is concatenated using "/"
    _ /subscriptions/{subscription_id}/resourceGroups/{resource_group}/providers/{provider}/netAppAccounts/{anfaccount}/capacityPools/{capacity_pool}/volumes/{volumename}_

    SC_PRIMARY_ARCHIVELOGS_VOLUME_FULL_PATH

    Specifies the archive log volume paths concatenated using "," as delimiter.
    For Azure NetApp Files volumes, the information in concatenated using "/"
    _ /subscriptions/{subscription_id}/resourceGroups/{resource_group}/providers/{provider}/netAppAccounts/{anfaccount}/capacityPools/{capacity_pool}/volumes/{volumename}_

  8. Click Create.

Configure RMAN catalog repository

You can configure the recovery catalog database as the RMAN catalog repository. If you do not configure the repository, by default, the Control file of the target database becomes the RMAN catalog repository.

Before you begin

You should manually register the target database with RMAN catalog database.

Steps

  1. In the Applications page, click icon to select the action > View Details.

  2. In the Database details section, click iconto edit to configure the RMAN catalog repository.

  3. Specify the credentials to catalog backups with RMAN and the Transparent Network Substrate (TNS) name of catalog recovery database.

  4. Click Configure.

Create a backup of the Oracle Database

You can assign a pre-canned policy or create a policy and then assign it to the database. Once the policy is assigned, the backups are created as per the schedule defined in the policy.

Note When creating ASM diskgroups on Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP or Cloud Volumes ONTAP, ensure that there are no common volumes across diskgroups. Each diskgroup should have dedicated volumes.

Steps

  1. In the Applications page, if the database is not protected using any policy, click Assign Policy.

    If the database is protected using one or more policies, you can assign more policies by clicking icon to select the action > Assign Policy.

  2. Select the policy and click Assign.

    The backups will be created as per the schedule defined in the policy. If you have enabled RMAN catalog in the policy, the backup at the end of the workflow will launch the cataloging operation as a separate job. The progress of cataloging can be seen from the Job Monitor. Upon successful cataloging, Backup Details will show the status of the catalog for each backup.

    Note The service account (SnapCenter-account-<account_id>) is used to run the scheduled backup operations.

Create on-demand backup of the Oracle database

After assigning the policy, you can create an on-demand backup of the application.

Steps

  1. In the Applications page, click icon to select the action corresponding to the application and click On-Demand Backup.

  2. If multiple policies are assigned to the application, select the policy, retention tier, and then click Create Backup.

    If you have enabled RMAN catalog in the policy, the backup at the end of the workflow will launch the cataloging operation as a separate job. The progress of cataloging can be seen from the Job Monitor. Upon successful cataloging, Backup Details will show the status of the catalog for each backup.

Limitations

  • Does not support consistency group Snapshots for Oracle databases residing on Multiple ASM disk groups with overlap of FSx volumes

  • If your Oracle databases are on Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP or Cloud Volumes ONTAP and are configured on ASM, ensure your SVM names are unique across the FSx systems. If you have same SVM name across FSx systems, back up of Oracle databases residing on those SVMs are not supported.

  • After restoring a large database (250 GB or more), if you perform a full online backup on the same database the operation might fail with the following error:
    failed with status code 500, error {\"error\":{\"code\":\"app_internal_error\",\"message\":\"Failed to create snapshot. Reason: Snapshot operation not allowed due to clones backed by snapshots. Try again after sometime.

    For information on how to fix this issue, refer to: Snapshot operation not allowed due to clones backed by snapshots.