An Azure account has been set up, and the necessary VNet and network segments have been created within your Azure account.

From the Azure cloud portal, deploy Azure Linux VMs as Oracle DB servers. Create an Azure NetApp Files capacity pool and database volumes for Oracle database. Enable VM SSH private/public key authentication for azureuser to DB servers. See the architecture diagram in the previous section for details about the environment setup. Also referred to Step-by-Step Oracle deployment procedures on Azure VM and Azure NetApp Files for detailed information.

For Azure VMs deployed with local disk redundancy, ensure that you have allocated at least 128G in the VM root disk to have sufficient space to stage Oracle installation files and add OS swap file. Expand /tmplv and /rootlv OS partition accordingly. Ensure the database volume naming follows the VMname-u01, VMname-u02, and VMname-u03 convention.

sudo lvresize -r -L +20G /dev/mapper/rootvg-rootlv

sudo lvresize -r -L +10G /dev/mapper/rootvg-tmplv

From the Azure cloud portal, provision a Windows server to run the NetApp SnapCenter UI tool with the latest version. Refer to the following link for details: Install the SnapCenter Server.

Provision a Linux VM as the Ansible controller node with the latest version of Ansible and Git installed. Refer to the following link for details: Getting Started with NetApp solution automation in section -
Setup the Ansible Control Node for CLI deployments on RHEL / CentOS or
Setup the Ansible Control Node for CLI deployments on Ubuntu / Debian.

The Ansible controller node can locate either on-premisses or in Azure cloud as far as it can reach Azure DB VMs via ssh port.

Clone a copy of the NetApp Oracle deployment automation toolkit for NFS. Follow instructions in TR-4887 to execute the playbooks.

git clone https://bitbucket.ngage.netapp.com/scm/ns-bb/na_oracle_deploy_nfs.git

Stage following Oracle 19c installation files on Azure DB VM /tmp/archive directory with 777 permission.

installer_archives:
  - "LINUX.X64_193000_db_home.zip"
  - "p34765931_190000_Linux-x86-64.zip"
  - "p6880880_190000_Linux-x86-64.zip"

Watch the following video:

Review the Get Started online menu.

From SnapCenter Windows server, download and install latest java JDK from Get Java for desktop applications.

From SnapCenter Windows server, download and install latest version (currently 5.0) of SnapCenter installation executable from NetApp support site: NetApp | Support.

After SnapCenter server installation, launch browser to login to SnapCenter with Windows local admin user or domain user credential via port 8146.

Review Get Started online menu.

In Settings-Global Settings, check Hypervisor Settings and click on Update.

If needed, adjust Session Timeout for SnapCenter UI to the desired interval.

Add additional users to SnapCenter if needed.

The Roles tab list the built-in roles that can be assigned to different SnapCenter users. Custom roles also can be created by admin user with desired privileges.

From Settings-Credential, create credentials for SnapCenter management targets. In this demo use case, they are linux user for login to Azure VM and ANF credential for capacity pool access.

From Storage Systems tab, add Azure NetApp Files with credential created above.

From Hosts tab, add Azure DB VMs, which installs SnapCenter plugin for Oracle on Linux.

Once host plugin is installed on DB server VM, databases on the host are auto discovered and visible in Resources tab. Back to Settings-Polices, create backup policies for full Oracle database online backup and archive logs only backup. Refer to this document Create backup policies for Oracle databases for detailed step by step procedures.

Navigating to Resources tab, which lists the databases discovered once SnapCenter plugin installed on database VM. Initially, the Overall Status of database shows as Not protected.

Click on View drop-down to change to Resource Group. Click on Add sign on the right to add a Resource Group.

Name your resource group, tags, and any custom naming.

Add resources to your Resource Group. Grouping of similar resources can simplify database management in a large environment.

Select the backup policy and set a schedule by click on '+' sign under Configure Schedules.

If backup verification is not configured in policy, leave verification page as is.

In order to email a backup report and notification, a SMTP mail server is needed in the environment. Or leave it black if a mail server is not setup.

Summary of new resource group.

Repeat the above procedures to create a database archive log only backup with corresponding backup policy.

Click on a resource group to reveal the resources it includes. Besides the scheduled backup job, an one-off backup can be triggered by clicking on Backup Now.

Click on the running job to open a monitoring window, which allows the operator to track the job progress in real-time.

A snapshot backup set appears under database topology once a successful backup job finishes. A full database backup set includes a snapshot of the database data volumes and a snapshot of the database log volumes. A log-only backup contains only a snapshot of the database log volumes.

From Resources tab, open the database Primary Backup(s) page. Choose the snapshot of database data volume, then click on Restore button to launch database recovery workflow. Note the SCN number or timestamp in the backup sets if you like to run the recovery by Oracle SCN or timestamp.

Select Restore Scope. For a container database, SnapCenter is flexible to perform a full container database (All Datafiles), pluggable databases, or tablespaces level restore.

Select Recovery Scope. All logs means to apply all available archive logs in the backup set. Point-in-time recovery by SCN or timestamp are also available.

The PreOps allows execution of scripts against database before restore/recovery operation.

The PostOps allows execution of scripts against database after restore/recovery operation.

Notification via email if desired.

Restore job summary

Click on running job to open Job Details window. The job status can also be opened and viewed from the Monitor tab.

From Resources tab, open the database Primary Backup(s) page. Choose the snapshot of database data volume, then click on clone button to launch database clone workflow.

Name the clone database SID. Optionally, for a container database, clone can be done at PDB level as well.

Select the DB server where you want to place your cloned database copy. Keep the default file locations unless you want to name them differently.

Identical Oracle software stack as in source database should have been installed and configured on clone DB host. Keep the default credential but change Oracle Home Settings to match with settings on clone DB host.

The PreOps allows execution of scripts before clone operation. Database parameters can be adjusted to meet a clone DB needs as versus a production database, such as reduced SGA target.

The PostOps allows execution of scripts against database after clone operation. Clone database recovery can be SCN, timestamp based, or Until cancel (rolling forward database to last archived log in the backup set).

Notification via email if desired.

Clone job summary.

Click on running job to open Job Details window. The job status can also be opened and viewed from the Monitor tab.

Cloned database registers with SnapCenter immediately.

Validate clone database on DB server host. For a cloned development database, database archive mode should be turned off.

[azureuser@ora-02 ~]$ sudo su
[root@ora-02 azureuser]# su - oracle
Last login: Tue Feb  6 16:26:28 UTC 2024 on pts/0

[oracle@ora-02 ~]$ uname -a
Linux ora-02 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8.x86_64 #1 SMP Fri Apr 15 22:12:19 EDT 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[oracle@ora-02 ~]$ df -h
Filesystem                                       Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
devtmpfs                                         7.7G     0  7.7G   0% /dev
tmpfs                                            7.8G     0  7.8G   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs                                            7.8G   49M  7.7G   1% /run
tmpfs                                            7.8G     0  7.8G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mapper/rootvg-rootlv                         22G   17G  5.6G  75% /
/dev/mapper/rootvg-usrlv                          10G  2.0G  8.1G  20% /usr
/dev/mapper/rootvg-homelv                       1014M   40M  975M   4% /home
/dev/sda1                                        496M  106M  390M  22% /boot
/dev/mapper/rootvg-varlv                         8.0G  958M  7.1G  12% /var
/dev/sda15                                       495M  5.9M  489M   2% /boot/efi
/dev/mapper/rootvg-tmplv                          12G  8.4G  3.7G  70% /tmp
tmpfs                                            1.6G     0  1.6G   0% /run/user/54321
172.30.136.68:/ora-02-u03                        250G  2.1G  248G   1% /u03
172.30.136.68:/ora-02-u01                        100G   10G   91G  10% /u01
172.30.136.68:/ora-02-u02                        250G  7.5G  243G   3% /u02
tmpfs                                            1.6G     0  1.6G   0% /run/user/1000
tmpfs                                            1.6G     0  1.6G   0% /run/user/0
172.30.136.68:/ora-01-u02-Clone-020624161543077  250G  8.2G  242G   4% /u02_ntap1dev

[oracle@ora-02 ~]$ cat /etc/oratab
#
# This file is used by ORACLE utilities.  It is created by root.sh
# and updated by either Database Configuration Assistant while creating
# a database or ASM Configuration Assistant while creating ASM instance.

# A colon, ':', is used as the field terminator.  A new line terminates
# the entry.  Lines beginning with a pound sign, '#', are comments.
#
# Entries are of the form:
#   $ORACLE_SID:$ORACLE_HOME:<N|Y>:
#
# The first and second fields are the system identifier and home
# directory of the database respectively.  The third field indicates
# to the dbstart utility that the database should , "Y", or should not,
# "N", be brought up at system boot time.
#
# Multiple entries with the same $ORACLE_SID are not allowed.
#
#
NTAP2:/u01/app/oracle/product/19.0.0/NTAP2:Y
# SnapCenter Plug-in for Oracle Database generated entry (DO NOT REMOVE THIS LINE)
ntap1dev:/u01/app/oracle/product/19.0.0/NTAP2:N


[oracle@ora-02 ~]$ export ORACLE_SID=ntap1dev
[oracle@ora-02 ~]$ sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL*Plus: Release 19.0.0.0.0 - Production on Tue Feb 6 16:29:02 2024
Version 19.18.0.0.0

Copyright (c) 1982, 2022, Oracle.  All rights reserved.


Connected to:
Oracle Database 19c Enterprise Edition Release 19.0.0.0.0 - Production
Version 19.18.0.0.0

SQL> select name, open_mode, log_mode from v$database;

NAME      OPEN_MODE            LOG_MODE
--------- -------------------- ------------
NTAP1DEV  READ WRITE           ARCHIVELOG


SQL> shutdown immediate;
Database closed.
Database dismounted.
ORACLE instance shut down.
SQL> startup mount;
ORACLE instance started.

Total System Global Area 3221223168 bytes
Fixed Size                  9168640 bytes
Variable Size             654311424 bytes
Database Buffers         2550136832 bytes
Redo Buffers                7606272 bytes
Database mounted.

SQL> alter database noarchivelog;

Database altered.

SQL> alter database open;

Database altered.

SQL> select name, open_mode, log_mode from v$database;

NAME      OPEN_MODE            LOG_MODE
--------- -------------------- ------------
NTAP1DEV  READ WRITE           NOARCHIVELOG

SQL> show pdbs

    CON_ID CON_NAME                       OPEN MODE  RESTRICTED
---------- ------------------------------ ---------- ----------
         2 PDB$SEED                       READ ONLY  NO
         3 NTAP1_PDB1                     MOUNTED
         4 NTAP1_PDB2                     MOUNTED
         5 NTAP1_PDB3                     MOUNTED

SQL> alter pluggable database all open;