Veritas-bu

[Veritas-bu] VERITAS Database Edition for Oracle on Solaris

2002-10-14 15:57:49
Subject: [Veritas-bu] VERITAS Database Edition for Oracle on Solaris
From: Dmitri.Smirnov AT fusepoint DOT com (Dmitri Smirnov)
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 12:57:49 -0700
Few things I would like to mention:

1) We're using hotbackup/RMAN for a long time with a dozen of Oracle
servers. 
As soon as process is established the only things to troubleshoot are
Oracle RMAN/Catalog problems. Make sure you have Oracle support
(metalink) and good DBAs.

2) We're testing restores on a regular basis - the only way to be sure
how long will it take and how successful is going to be. Very recommend
to implement and document the process step by step.

3) Still having a bad impression from a Veritas support. They have a
very good people  but you have to be lucky to get one of them on-call...
Escalate. If you think you've got a wrong guy working with you -
escalate to a manager on duty, and up.
Don't know the size of the DB but 76 hours to restore is not looking
good.

Dmitri

-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Boone-TM [mailto:Brian.Boone AT telus DOT com] 
Sent: Monday, October 14, 2002 11:07 AM
To: 'veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu'
Cc: 'Peter DrakeUnderkoffler '
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] VERITAS Database Edition for Oracle on Solaris


We have had great luck with RMAN and the NetBackup for Oracle client.
You will need buy in from your DBA's.  Most I have worked with are very
nervous about RMAN.

Peter, the problem you describe is not uncommon.  One example of this
would be as follows:

You use three RMAN channels to backup up your database.  If your class
allows three jobs to sun simultaneously (with a multiplexing on one)
three tapes can be allocated.  If other backups are running, jobs can
queue and you may only use one or two tapes for the backup.

On the restore if you also specify three channels, restore job(s) may
have to wait for the other channels/restores to finish before it can get
the tape.

You have to modify the CLIENT_READ_TIMEOUT in the bp.conf of the restore
client to be long enough to allow the first restore to complete
otherwise it times out waiting for the tape mount.  Or you can use one
channel.

Obviously similar things can happen if multiplexing is used.

Brian

Brian Boone
Storage Area Network Specialist
Systems Operations
TELUS Mobility
Brian.Boone AT telus DOT com


>We have had spotty success with RMAN. The setup in the beginning does 
>take some extra effort. However, once that is done, backups hum along 
>well. The problems we have had are the times when we need to restore an

>Oracle DB via RMAN. One outage took us around 36 hours to get RMAN to 
>actually do the
>*first* step of the restore. Each time we started a restore request it
would
>work for several hours then promptly die spitting out a few errors. Our

>DBA's worked with Veritas support during the entire restore. Eventually

>the restore worked but not due to any particular config or process 
>change. Just happened that one time it actually worked. The total 
>restoration time start to finish was around 72 hours. Lucky for us it 
>was over a weekend so only one day of production was lost really.
>
>My point is, RMAN is a good way to do hot backups of DB's. Just be 
>aware that it may take a long time to recover a DB is the planets 
>aren't aligned just right. Others may have better mileage, I'm only 
>speaking from our experiences here.
>
>Mark
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Peter DrakeUnderkoffler [mailto:pcd AT xinupro DOT com]
>Sent: Friday, October 04, 2002 7:32 AM
>To: Rien, Julie L. [C]
>Cc: 'veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu'
>Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] VERITAS Database Edition for Oracle on 
>Solaris
>
>
>"Rien, Julie L. [C]" wrote:
>> 
>> To all:
>> 
>> System details:
>> SUN Enterprise 5500
>> 2 A1000 Arrays
>> 1 L1000 Tape Library
>> 
>> Software:
>> Solaris 8
>> Oracle 8i
>> VERITAS Volume Manager
>> VERITAS NetBackUP
>> 
>> We currently allow 4.5 hours of down time a night to do daily exports

>> and backups through oracle export and netbackup respectively.  Our 
>> window of down time is shrinking beyond a point that utilizing 
>> incremental backup
>will
>> not shorten our backup time enough.
>> 
>> I have been researching solutions to this and have come up with two
>options
>> to allow for 24hr by 7day uptime but allow for solid backups. 1. 
>> SNAPSHOT -- will not work because of the oracle db (this is a db 
>> server...its only purpose) 2. VERITAS Database Edition for Oracle on 
>> Solaris
>> 
>> I was hoping that this group may have some success stories with 
>> VERITAS Database Edition for Oracle on Solaris OR suggestions on 
>> other solutions
>you
>> have used.
>> 
>> I am interested in hearing your restoring experiences with either of
these
>> options also.
>> 
>> Thank you in advance for your help.
>> 
>> Julie
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Veritas-bu maillist  -  Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu 
>> http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
>
>Hot backups with NetBackup via RMAN have always worded well.  It is a 
>little extra work to setup in the beginning, but it is well worth it. 
>I've set it up several times on various sized databases.  Of course I 
>needed a DBA to deal with the RCAT database and all the other Oracle 
>specific things.
>
>
>Thanks
>Peter
>_______________________________________________
>Veritas-bu maillist  -  Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
>
>
>
>
>Brian
>
>Brian Boone
>Storage Area Network Specialist
>Systems Operations
>TELUS Mobility
>Work:  416-279-3510
>Cell:  416-684-0519
>Brian.Boone AT telus DOT com
>
>
>
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