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RE: Disaster recovery using RMAN

From: DENNIS WILLIAMS <DWILLIAMS_at_LIFETOUCH.COM>
Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2002 18:44:31 -0800
Message-ID: <F001.003F36F1.20020117180527@fatcity.com>

Sona -

        Please keep in mind that we are RMAN novices at this stage. Of all the DBA duties, I feel that the ability to recover the data is the most important.

        I picked our smallest database to start getting some operational experience with. We still do weekly cold backups, writing the results to tape because I haven't worked with RMAN long enough to have full confidence in it. The database is archivelog, of course.

        Currently I do a weekly RMAN level 0 backup to disk. We don't have a Media Manager like Legato or Veritas yet, and we were warned that RMAN gets much more complex when these are used, so I thought disk backups sounded like a good way to begin.

        During the week we do RMAN incremental backups each night. This takes up very little disk space. My feeling is that with the weekly cold backup we are heavily dependent on our archive logs and with the RMAN incremental backup we would only be vulnerable for a day if an archive log was lost. Recall that during recovery, Oracle reads the archive logs in sequence and if for some reason an archive log is missing or unusable, recover stops there.

        We keep the week's RMAN backups on disk. Presumably if we had a failure, RMAN would have what it needs on disk. Before a backup is deleted from disk it is written to tape as part of the regular full system backups.

        I was having RMAN archive the archivelogs, but I couldn't figure out what this was buying me and it doubled the amount of disk needed for the archive logs. If we were using a media manager so RMAN was writing to tape, then this would be great, but since we are only backing up to disk, I felt it wasn't needed.

        I hope this gives you the details you need. As I said, I am an RMAN novice, but always willing to answer more questions as I am able. Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
dwilliams_at_lifetouch.com

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2002 11:46 AM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

Dennis,
Could you please share your regular backup strategies with me for me to understand this better?

Thanks

>
> Dennis,
>
> I hope you can clarify something in your plan for me.
>
> Why are you backing up to disk? By doing so, you are losing one of the
> chief benefits of RMAN. RMAN keeps a catalog of the tapes and knows
> which tapes to request to restore a backup, and which files to retrieve
> from those tapes.
>
> Do you backup the disk files to tape without the benefit of any tape
> management software? Do you manually label the tapes?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jared
>
>
>
>
>
> DENNIS WILLIAMS
> <DWILLIAMS_at_LIFE To: Multiple recipients of
list ORACLE-L <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com>
> TOUCH.COM> cc:
> Sent by: Subject: RE: Disaster
recovery using RMAN
> root_at_fatcity.co
> m
>
>
> 01/17/02 05:05
> AM
> Please respond
> to ORACLE-L
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Sona - I am planning to test a disaster recovery using RMAN also. My
> company
> won't completely trust it until I can. Like you, I currently use RMAN to
> back up to disk, and write the backup to tape, keeping a Level 0 backup on
> disk. Here are the steps I am planning for disaster recovery.
>
> 1. Export the RMAN catalog and FTP a copy to the target system each time
> nightly backups are complete.
> 2. Back the Level 0 backup to tape, along with RMAN catalog export.
> 3. Mount the tape on the disaster recovery test system.
> 4. Assume that same version of Oracle is installed on the disaster
recovery
> test system.
> 5. Create an RMAN user and import the RMAN catalog export.
> 6. Copy the RMAN Level 0 backup to disk. If possible, put it on the same
> path as on the original machine. If not, create a link so it looks like
the
> same location to the system.
> 7. Begin RMAN recovery, changing disk locations for the data files, as
> needed.
>
> I'm just listing these off the top of my head, so I may have left
something
> out. If you or any other listers see anything amiss with my plans, please
> point that out.
> Dennis Williams
> DBA
> Lifetouch, Inc.
> dwilliams_at_lifetouch.com
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2002 5:21 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
>
>
>
> Hi
>
> Here in my company we are planning to put together a disaster recovery
plan
> using RMAN would like to test various recovery scenarios using RMAN.
>
> Could anyone provide the information on the procedures followed in a
> testing
> like this?
>
> TIA
>
> --
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
> --
> Author: DENNIS WILLIAMS
> INET: DWILLIAMS_at_LIFETOUCH.COM
>
> Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051
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>
>
> --
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
> --
> Author:
> INET: Jared.Still_at_radisys.com
>
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-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
-- 
Author: Sona
  INET: sona_us_at_hotmail.com

Fat City Network Services    -- (858) 538-5051  FAX: (858) 538-5051
San Diego, California        -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists
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-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
-- 
Author: DENNIS WILLIAMS
  INET: DWILLIAMS_at_LIFETOUCH.COM

Fat City Network Services    -- (858) 538-5051  FAX: (858) 538-5051
San Diego, California        -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists
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Received on Thu Jan 17 2002 - 20:44:31 CST

Original text of this message

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