I am also interested in backup-to disk in certain situations
(ordinary backup, not the Oracle agent, in the first instance).

I am also using NBU 3.4 on Solaris 8.

However, I have not spotted in the docs how one would go about this.

[I'm afraid I don't seem to have previously spotted the script referred to
below]

>From the clues below, it sounds like you need to define the disk area
as a storage unit, but I don't know how to go about that.

Any pointers (preferable using the command-line interface) would be
appreciated.


A follow-up question: if using bpduplicate to get the disk image to tape,
does this mean you are restricted (in 3.4 anyway) to a single tape
copy? (since when normally backing up direct to tape, you are then
only allowed to copy (bpduplicate) it once) ?

With thanks,
Regards,
Mike Ellwood


> Sorry about the woozy thing.  The script is complex because I've got
> cross-checks all through it.  Basically, though it's:
> 
> Backup to disk (using a disk storage unit).  Then the script will:
> 1. (Later) query the disk storage unit's filesystem to get a 
> list of images.
> (bpimmedia)
> 2. use bpduplicate to copy those images to tape. (bpduplicate)
> 3. verify they're on tape (bpimagelist)
> 4. (if OK) expire the on-disk copy (bpexpdate).
> 
> Remember that a backup to disk doesn't hardware compress like 
> a tape device
> does.  If you want compressed backups, you have to use the client
> compression option which adds a lot of time to the backup and 
> loads the
> client's CPU pretty badly.  It's also not a very efficient compression
> algorithm.
> 
> If you want *Fast* with a capital F, you might consider 
> splitting a mirror
> of your data disks.  This'll take as much disk as a 
> backup-to-disk (unless
> you use the high-CPU client compression option). You can do 
> with with a
> hardware product like Timefinder (EMC) or software product like VxVM. 
> 
> You could do a regular file backup to tape at your leisure 
> from your split
> mirror if you wish.  Depending on the kind of split mirror, 
> it might even be
> doable off-host.
> 
> Backing up to disk is often faster than tape, it's just a 
> faster media.
> Once an image is on media, duplicating it is easy with the bpduplicate
> command.
> 
> -M
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: William Enestvedt [mailto:William.Enestvedt AT jwu DOT edu]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2004 11:02 AM
> To: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
> Subject: [Veritas-bu] Staging backups to disk for Oracle on NBU 3.4,
> Solaris 8
> 
> 
> Good afternoon;
>    I'm curious about using a disk Storage Unit for staging 
> cold backups of
> an Oracle database. Is it that much faster than going right to tape in
> practice? Is the setup very complex? Can I fake this without 
> buying Vault or
> the Oracle Agent? Or should I just suck it up and buy one or 
> the other of
> these?
>    I've been re-reading Mark Donaldson's script from 9/15/03, 
> and frankly,
> it's making me a little woozy.
>    Right now, we do cold backups of our Oracle databases, for 
> simplicity's
> sake. I'm getting pressure to shrink the backup window, and staging my
> backups to disk seems like a quick way to do so, with the 
> side benefit of
> speeding up restores (until I expire the images from the 
> disks). Will I
> really buy much time? And do I need the Vault software?
>    Also, does NBU handle both backups (to disk, and then to tape) on a
> schedule, or do I need to schedule one of these via cron?
>    We run NBU 3.4 Data Center right now, on all Sun equipment 
> (clients at
> 2.6 & 8, three Media Servers, two L9s and a one-drive L25). 
> If I want to add
> anything -- like the Oracle agent -- I'm afraid that I'll get 
> backed into
> upgrading my whole setup. Which would be fun in theory, but a 
> burden in
> practice. :7)
>    Thanks in advance for any pointers.
> -wde
> --
> Will Enestvedt
> UNIX System Administrator
> Johnson & Wales University -- Providence, RI
> 
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