Greetings everyone,
We currently take a very basic approach to backing up our ERP Oracle databases
(all on Red Hat Linux). Each service (e.g., Kronos, Cognos, payroll, student
grades, etc.) runs its own Oracle database on it's own server. Our Oracle DB
administrator has a cron job on each server that runs once daily that does an
RMAN dump to another Linux server who's entire reason for being is to receive
those RMAN backups. All are Oracle 10.2g.
The backup server that is a repository for these Oracle RMAN backups is also a
Linux box with it's storage on an EMC SAN where each server's DB is backed up
via RMAN to a different directory on it's SAN mount point. I currently have a
regularly scheduled NetWorker group that backs up that one (and only one)
backup server once a day to a Data Domain system. There is nothing fancy about
this. In this group, I use NetWorker 7.2.1's group cloning feature to clone the
data from our Data Domain system to encrypted LTO-5 tape over a fiber channel
link. The backup to Data Domain from the Oracle RMAN backup server runs over a
standard Gige network. Of course, the cloning is a single stream of data by the
time it goes to tape. I also only have two tape drives to work with in my tape
library and about fifty application servers to back up to Data Domain then
group clone to tape in addition to this Oracle data.
This approach has been working out fairly well, but senior management wants to
reduce the backup window so we can get our tapes off-site earlier in the day,
which poses technical challenges (no surprise there). Our tapes get sent
off-site late every afternoon and our DBA's RMAN backup scripts begin at
5:00pm. If heh starts those scripts earlier in the day, we will take a
performance hit on our Oracle servers, which will degrade performance for our
ERP system's users.
The solution I have in mind is to take the intermediary backup server out of
the equation and instead, let NetWorker send the RMAN data directly from the
Oracle databases to our Data Domain system instead of the various cron scripts.
This approach is bound to be much faster than our current simplistic approach,
plus it will save several TB of capacity on our SAN.
For this approach, I am assuming, but I might be wrong, that we would need to
install the "NetWorker Module for Databases and Applications." Unfortunately,
the administrator guide for that module is scant with information on how to set
this up. What I need to do, I think, is to install this module on each of our
ERP database servers. Right? Then the cron jobs we currently have on each
server would instead be scheduled via a single group or would each one need to
be scheduled as a separate group? If separate groups are necessary, how do I
clone the sets of data to a tape drive in a single stream like what I have now?
I only have two tape drives. Unless management wants to invest in more LTO-5
drives, I need the other tape drive to clone data other than our ERP Oracle
databases. The NetWorker server is 64-bit Red Hat Linux with the 64-bit
NetWorker 7.2.1 Power Edition NetWorker server software on it.
Any comments or recommendations on which specific NetWorker module to use and a
high level approach to implement this are more than welcome.
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