I recently installed the combination of Enterprise Manager and Rman
(Oracle Backup Manager using "rman" with a repository) as an online backup
solution in a small to medium Oracle 8 environemt. Since there were a few
wrinkles in the install, I thought I would post the results.
I was looking for an online backup solution and didn't want to introduce
alot of complexitiy into our environment (SunOS 5.5.1, Oracle 8.0.3.2.0,
Net 80). I evalutated several solutions, ranging from scripts to the
Enterprise Manager/Rman solution. Briefly, the scripts that were simple
enough to be maintainable were very weak on the recovery side, and the
scripts with more complexity were overlarge for my tastes.
I settled on Enterprise Manager/Rman, and while the install was fairly
complex, it appears to be very stable and performs recovery quite well.
The install involved:
- Install Oracle 8 Enterprise Manager on a client machine (in my case,
Win95)
- Build repositories for Enterprise Manager and Rman in an Oracle 8
instance. I had to build the Enterprise Manager repository manually,
although you do have the option of building the repository right from the
client. The manual build procedure is in the "Hints" section of the
Enterprise Manager Adminstrator's guide. You must run "catproc.sql" on
this instance since it creates the dbsnmp schema (needed for Oracle
Intelligent Agent) and some procedures needed for backup.(catproc.sql
calls dbmsrman.sql and dbsnmp.sql as well as other scripts)
- Create users for the Enterprise Manager and Rman (recovery catalog
owner) account. The rman user must have the "recovery_catalog_owner"
grant and must run the catrman.sql script.
- Set up the database for remote privileges by creating an Oracle
password file (orapwd file=filename password=password entries=10) in the
dbs directory. In the file initSID.ora, add the line
"remote_login_passwordfile = exclusive". Shutdown the database and
restart.
- Install SNMP on the Sun. With SunOs 5.6 the agents are included, with
5.5 you need to go to Sun's website and retrieve them
(www.sun.com/solstice/products/ent.agents), they are a free
download.Install using the standard Sun 'pkgadd' tool.
- Install Oracle Intelligent Agent on the Sun. Modify the files in
$ORACLE_HOME/product/8.0.3/network/snmp/peer; the mods consist mostly of
puting the machine's hostname in CONFIG.master and in the file start_peer,
point to the proper location of the snmpdx (SNMPD=/usr/lib/snmp/snmpdx)
and conf files (SNMPD_CONFIG=/etc/snmp/conf/snmpd.conf). There is
documentation in the start_peer script and in the CONFIG.* files. There is
also some documentation in $ORACLE_HOME/product/8.0.3/network/doc
(README.oemagent).
- Start all agents in the proper order. Run the script 'start_peer' as
root, it will start "master_peer", "encap_peer", and finally the system
snmpdx. Then, start the oracle agent with "lsnrctl dbsnmp_start". This
last must be done as oracle. Of course, this must be put in the system
boot or database startup scripts. Note that the 'dbsnmp' agent maintains a
connection to each database on the system, you must do a "lsnrctl
dbsnmp_stop" before a "shutdown normal" will succeed.
- Now you are ready to use the Enterprise Manager client. In order to use
the Oracle Backup Manager you must connect using a dedicated server
process. If you are running MTS on your server (multi-threaded server) you
can create an tnsnames entry for the target database (i.e. the database
you are going to back up) with the specifyer (SERVER=DEDICATED) on your
client PC. This will guarantee a dedicated server process, otherwise the
backup utility will complain. Also, the username you are going to use in
the target database must have the SYSDBA grant (requires the orapwd file
and remote_login_passwordfile = exclusive as indicated above).
- Try a few simple jobs from Enterprise Manager, such as an OS command
like 'date' or a SQL script like 'select sysdate from dual'. If you see
the job become scheduled, then move to the job history tab as completed,
you are pretty well done. If it fails, the error messages can be somewhat
cryptic and unhelpful.
- BTW, the Sun system must be able to resolve your hostname and IP
address, even if your Win95 machine gets its IP address dynamically. This
is a little strange, I had to use a reserved address in DHCP for my Win95
machine and then add this to our DNS server. If you don't do this, the job
is scheduled but never progresses. Actually the job completes but when the
SNMP agent tries to send it back to your PC it cannot find your address. I
discovered this after about a day of trying to figure it out, by turning
on debug in the snmp agent (modify the snmp_rw.ora file according to the
notes in $ORACLE_HOME/product/8.0.3/network/doc/README.oemagent).
- You will need to create a user account on the UNIX machine and
register this username/password in the Enterprise Manager "Preferences"
window. Also, you must register usernames/passwords for the databases you
are submitting jobs to.
If you need to do an export, for example, the user account on the UNIX box
must have write permission in the destination directory of the expdat.dmp
file. If the user does not have write permission, the error messages are
very cryptic, as I recall they say 'Failed to authenticate user'.
- In order to back up to tape, you need a MML library (media management
library) for your architecture. Our local Sun rep had never heard of any
such product. In order to backup to disk (as I am doing) you don't need
any special drivers. (If anyone knows where to get a MML for Sun, please
let me know).
Thats it, 12 easy steps, once installed it works great! I was able to
delete datafiles from a running (throw-away) instance and upon shutdown &
startup, Enterprise Manager and Backup Utility recovered with no problems.
I have an ordinary Unix cron job that archives the backup directory to
tape (since I am backing up to disk).
I would appreciate any comments on these install notes; also I should add
that I am available for short or longer-term contracting assignments in
the Philadelphia area.
thanks,
Dan Lewis (dlewis_at_voicenet.com)
Received on Thu May 28 1998 - 15:01:29 CDT