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NT: Re: Win2k Backup

From: Paul Drake <paled_at_home.com>
Date: Sat, 07 Apr 2001 11:02:43 -0700
Message-ID: <F001.002E4817.20010407105019@fatcity.com>

Tavo,

The most important thing about backup is - recovery. If you use the ARCServeIT product for creating a (hot/cold) backup set, its likely that you'll want to recover using the ARCServeIT GUI. Have you ever tested restoring from a backup set with their product?

My philosophy on this is - the ARCServe or Veritas Oracle Agents just look into the data dictionary to find the info that they need - same as any good scripted backup set would do. You could use a batch script/sql script to perform exactly the same thing - but to disk (which would be copied to tape without an Oracle Agent). Would you rather recover from disk, or from tape?

What they give you is the ability for a non-DBA to recover the database, using the GUI.
A database deployed at a client site typically would like to have a GUI for recovery, and have a vendor that they can call for support if they have a problem.

If you are going to recover the database, then you have more freedom to choose the method of backup and recovery.

I'll be giving a presentation at NYOUG's DBA SIG on 17-April including scripted backups with compression for NT/W2K. They're actually pretty simple, here's the framework for the cold backup: (a hot backup version is also used)

  1. scheduled job calls the run_cold_backup.bat file
  2. run_cold_backup.bat calls sqlplus with a file spool_cold_backup.sql
  3. sqlplus executes spool_cold_backup.sql - spooling out cold_backup.bat
  4. the last line of spool_cold_backup.sql has a HOST command that calls cold_backup.bat
  5. cold_backup.bat does the following: creates an entry in the NT Event Log stops the listener sevices shuts down the instance stops the NT Service OracleService<SID> copies to disk control files online redo logs datafiles init file moves archived redo logs renames alert log renames listener logs starts the listener services starts the OracleService<SID> starts the backup set compression job starts the archived redo log compression job
  6. pacomp_<SID>_cold.bat compresses the backup set from the stage area to a ZipFiles location. this uses the PowerArchiver command line utility datafiles must be under 2048 MB each to be compressed (optional) copies the compressed backup set to a NAS location
  7. pacomp_<SID>_arch.bat compresses the archived redo logs from the stage area to a ZipFiles location (optional) copies the compressed backup set to a NAS location
  8. the backup set gets written to tape
    • call ntbackup with your .bat file to move the backup set to tape.
    • use a media manager, such as Veritas NT Backup Exec or ARCServeIT for writing the data to tape.

<man_page>
ntbackup - Command line parameters - ntbackup /? at command prompt - Windows 2000 Pro
You can perform backup operations at the command prompt or from a batch file using the ntbackup command
 followed by various parameters.

Syntax:

ntbackup backup [systemstate] "bks file name" /J {"job name"} [/P {"pool name"}] [/G {"guid name"}] [/T { "tape name"}] [/N {"media name"}] [/F

{"file name"}] [/D {"set description"}] [/DS {"server name"}] [/IS
{"server name"}] [/A] [/V:{yes|no}] [/R:{yes|no}] [/L:{f|s|n}] [/M
{backup type}] [/RS:{yes|no}] [/HC:{on|off}] [/UM] 
</man_page>

I have actually restored and recovered from this method Also, the backup jobs document the location of all of the files in the cold_backup.bat - so the location of all of the files is recorded.

In general, if you have the spare space on disk - (and with 18 GB drives being the norm - of course you have the spare space) I like to keep the previous night's hot backup set on disk, the previous weekend's cold backup set, as well as the full week's worth of archived redo.

Here is a sample output from an AT command:

Status ID   Day                     Time          Command Line
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        1   Each M T W Th F         10:00 PM     
D:\Oracle\Admin\PROD\exp\export.bat
        2   Each M T W Th           10:15 PM     
D:\Oracle\Admin\PROD\batchjobs\run_hot_backup.bat
        3   Each F                  10:15 PM     
D:\Oracle\Admin\PROD\batchjobs\run_cold_backup.bat
        4   Each M T W Th F         10:30 PM     
D:\Oracle\Admin\TEST\exp\export.bat
        5   Each M T W Th           10:45 PM     
D:\Oracle\Admin\TEST\batchjobs\run_hot_backup.bat
        6   Each F                  10:45 PM     
D:\Oracle\Admin\TEST\batchjobs\run_cold_backup.bat
        7   Each M T W Th F         11:15 PM     
d:\Oracle\Admin\DEV\exp\export.bat
        8   Each F                  11:30 PM     
d:\Oracle\Admin\DEV\batchjobs\run_cold_backup.bat

each db is exported nightly - check the logs for logical corruption. PROD and TEST are in acrhivelog mode - hot backups each weeknight, cold backup on Fridays.
DEV is in noarchivelog mode - so a recovery from an export is not so bad.
I keep a set of empty datafiles (compressed) around, so that if I need to recover from an export, I do not need to create the database first.

improvments that I've been looking at:

calling this set with the db_name (db_name in 'DEV','TEST','PROD') and having no hard-coded values.
using blat to send the logfile to a mail account. using the command srvinfo.exe to record free hard drive space before and after.

The script sets will be posted at http://www.nylug.org sometime after the presentation.
I haven't used RMan on a real DB yet - maybe after the IOUG conference, I'll be inclined to do so.

hth,

Paul

Paul Drake
paled_at_home.com

Luis DeUrioste wrote:
>
> Dear List Members:
>
> We are in the planning stage of upgrading from NT 40 to Windows2000
> and from 8.0.5 to 8.1.7 and I'm putting my ducks in a row. My
> question is, has anybody used Win2k Backup to Backup the database ?
> Can it handle ? somehow ? shutting down the DB for cold Backups ? I
> currently use ArcServIT with the Oracle Agent and it handles the whole
>
> "Enchilada". Should I upgrade ArcServIT and keep it? Are there any
> better Backup Solutions? Any input will be appreciated.
>
> Regards
>
> Tavo

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Author: Paul Drake
  INET: paled_at_home.com

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Received on Sat Apr 07 2001 - 13:02:43 CDT

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