In regard to: [Networker] Oracle Backups w/o rman, Yard, John said (at...:

I have a Legato 7.4.1 system
on AIX 5.3 which backups up a
number of Oracle databases.

Our strategy is to backup the Oracle
databases to disk , then backup the
Oracle backup os files to tape, then
delete the oracle backups.

That's what we do for a lot of our databases,
whether they're less-important Oracle stuff
or other types, like PostgreSQL or MySQL.

In addition we backup the os filesystems
to tape . If I backup the oracle
file systems to Legato I will have a
massive duplication of data.  Since Oracle
is not being terminated, these backups are
not valid for recovery, yet I need a structure
for the dba to recover into if we were to lose
a disk.

That's absolutely correct.

I am sure there is documentation in
respect to this issue, can this group
suggest some starting points ? Comments ?

You should read up on NetWorker's "directives",
which control how (and whether) NetWorker backs up
certain files.  You want to pay particular attention
to the discussion of "null" and/or "skip" directives.

Basically, what you want to do is have NetWorker avoid
backing up all of your live database files (or at least
their contents).  If they are all located in e.g.
/u01/app/product/oracle/my_database and the database files
are all named with e.g. .dbf endings, then if you create
a directive something like

<< /u01/app/product/oracle/my_database >>
        null:   *.dbf

The metadata on the files will be backed up, but the contents
will not be.

Directives can be created on a per-client basis, and can reside
either on the server (in the "Directives" setting for the client)
or in a file on the client.

Read up on directives, and ask additional questions if you get
stuck.

Tim
--
Tim Mooney                                             Tim.Mooney AT ndsu DOT 
edu
Enterprise Computing & Infrastructure                  701-231-1076 (Voice)
Room 242-J6, IACC Building                             701-231-8541 (Fax)
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105-5164

To sign off this list, send email to listserv AT listserv.temple DOT edu and type 
"signoff networker" in the body of the email. Please write to networker-request 
AT listserv.temple DOT edu if you have any problems with this list. You can access the 
archives at http://listserv.temple.edu/archives/networker.html or
via RSS at http://listserv.temple.edu/cgi-bin/wa?RSS&L=NETWORKER