include/exclude problem (Oracle, TDP, SQL-BackTrack)

[dadamo]

I need a way to exclude files but not soft links (unix). Does anyone know

how to do this? If not, I'll try submitting a Product Enhancement

Request for TSM.



Background: my DBAs build all Oracle instances under the /oracle filesystem

and use soft links. Example:

/oracle/SID1/CNTR1/file1.ctl

is not on the /oracle filesystem because /oracle/SID1/CNTR1 is a soft link

to some other filesystem.

/oracle/SID1/CNTR1/file1.ctl -> /fs12.3/oracle/CNTR1

(Without soft links, the /oracle filesystem would have

to be 1 or 2 Terabytes to hold all the instances).



We use TDP or SQL-BackTrack (depending on host) to do hot backups of the

instances, so we want to exclude the instance files from the daily TSM incremental

backups. (TSM backups of active Oracle instance files are useless and the

incrementals run forever if such files aren't excluded.)



If I do

exclude /.../oracle/SID1/.../*

then the links are excluded, too.



During a Disaster Recovery test, the TSM restore of /oracle (and /fs12.3) didn't restore

the links. Therefore the SQL-BackTrack restore of the instance failed when /oracle

reached 100%. I had to manually recreate the links to get the SQL-BackTrack restore

to work.



A solution would be to exclude only files but include soft links. Does anyone know

how to do this?

 

[tcarroll]

dadamo,



We also use a TSM/BMC/TDP mixture in our environment. This is what our inclexcl file looks like.



exclude.archive /.../u0?/.../*

exclude.archive /.../u1?/.../*

exclude /.../u0?/.../*

exclude /.../u1?/.../*

exclude /tmp/.../*

exclude /proc/.../*

exclude /cdrom/.../*



We also have the Oracle databases following a symbolic link from /opt/oracle, but this is not a problem. We make sure to backup the destination directly and not follow any links.

Do the excludes from the (in your case) /fs12.3/oracle/CNTR1 level, not /oracle/...



Tom

 

[dadamo]

Thanks for your response.



Excluding /fs12.3/oracle/CNTR1 instead of /oracle/[SID]/CNTR1 is

a very good idea.



A problem, however, is that sometimes the instance files get moved, and sometimes

new ones are added. Also, sometimes there's links further down the tree.

/fs12.3/oracle/SID1/data/FILE1 (a file)

/fs12.3/oracle/SID1/data/FILE2 (a file)

/fs12.3/oracle/SID1/data/FILE3 (a link to another filesystem)



With 171 Oracle instances on about 40 hosts, I'd probably have to write

and then regulary run a script that determines a host's instance files and

then checks if any changes need to be made to the inclexcl file.



What I really want to do is

exclude.files.but.not.links /.../oracle/SID1/.../*

but unfortunately it looks like TSM doesn't have it.