Re: Lightweight method for testing database backup processes

From: Mladen Gogala <gogala.mladen_at_gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2017 09:53:27 -0400
Message-ID: <25fed4f9-b29a-cf2a-b1f8-d13408ad1628_at_gmail.com>



Why would you want to rest rman backups? Do you have any doubts of their quality? You can do "restore validate" is you suspect a problem. I understand that you should be cautious, but rman has proven itself many times over, there is no need to test it whether it will work. Do you test your car every morning?

On 08/21/2017 09:39 AM, Chris Stephens wrote:
> We are looking for an efficient way to regularly test RMAN backups
> across a large (and growing) Exadata database environment.
>
> After watching this video https://youtu.be/Ds1xrfdlZRc i thought about
> doing the following:
>
> create a dedicated, small tablespace in all databases to hold a single
> table with a single date/timestamp column. create a scheduler job to
> insert current sysdate/systimestamp value once per day and delete all
> rows older than recovery window setting for RMAN.
>
> write a script to 1) randomly pick a database on each Exadata system
> 2) randomly pick a day that falls within the recovery window
> requirement for that database 3) converts that day to a valid SCN 4)
> uses the new table PITR functionality to restore the table 4) confirm
> expected table content 5) sends success/failure summary email.
>
> execute the script with a frequency that makes us feel comfortable
> with our backups.
>
> we also intend to have a process that utilizes the "restore preview"
> RMAN command to get a list of backup pieces to run the RMAN "validate"
> command against for a randomly chosen SCN that falls within recovery
> window.
>
> Does anyone see any big issues with this process? Any other ideas for
> efficiently testing database backups? our databases will soon be
> large enough to make testing through full restores infeasible.
>
> any feedback is greatly appreciated!
>
> thanks,
> chris
>

-- 
Mladen Gogala
Oracle DBA
Tel: (347) 321-1217


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Received on Mon Aug 21 2017 - 15:53:27 CEST

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