lightweight method to test RMAN backups

From: Chris Stephens <cstephens16_at_gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2017 15:12:09 +0000
Message-ID: <CAEFL0szS5FiW6hrxFXdJwap+RKmxRzA8XC2TdNwQ022acEkxGg_at_mail.gmail.com>



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

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Received on Fri Aug 18 2017 - 17:12:09 CEST

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