TDPO SYNCH question

[tsmdumber]

Hi All,

My setup goes this way

We have oracle servers backing up through tdp for oracle. They use controlfile instead of rman catalog.

The organization retention requirement are to keep daily backup for 90 days and monthly backup for 15 years.

The oracle DBA says the oracle is set to do not expire data.

From TSM end there are no monthly or yearly nodes.

They are changing the file space name on monthly basisin tdpo.opt ( Apparently they do this to delete filespaces from TSM end)

My questions are listed as below

1) IF I run tdposynch synch db will I get any list of backupsets? ( I doubt it as theoracle dba syas its set to do not expire)

2) If tdposynch synchdb list me the backupsets will it list out all the db's .the db's of other filesystem as well?

3) How do I configure for monthly nodes with retention for 15 years?
Proably creat a monthly node use a different tdpo.opt and dsm.opt but how would i set the reention for these node?

I am a new recruit to this setup and trying to fix the holes here.I have not worked on oracle before. Please help this newbie!

Regards,
TSMDUMBER

 

[gimlet]

Hi All,

My setup goes this way

We have oracle servers backing up through tdp for oracle. They use controlfile instead of rman catalog.

Investigate using the RMAN catalog. Trust me, only having the controlfiles is very messy. If the controlfiles fill up, you lose your older backups. And then there's really no way to restore from them (RMAN does not know they are there), or delete them from TSM (RMAN can't mark them as deleted).

The organization retention requirement are to keep daily backup for 90 days and monthly backup for 15 years.

The oracle DBA says the oracle is set to do not expire data.

From TSM end there are no monthly or yearly nodes.

They are changing the file space name on monthly basisin tdpo.opt ( Apparently they do this to delete filespaces from TSM end)

I don't think you want to do things like this. Your Oracle backups should be managed by RMAN.

My questions are listed as below

1) IF I run tdposynch synch db will I get any list of backupsets? ( I doubt it as theoracle dba syas its set to do not expire)

You can't run tdposync, since you don't have a catalog server.

2) If tdposynch synchdb list me the backupsets will it list out all the db's .the db's of other filesystem as well?

Not sure what you're asking. The tablespace should be unique to the TDP node. When you use tdposync, it connects to the catalog server, and compares what is listed in the catalog server against what is on the TSM server. It then gives you the option to delete objects that aren't referenced in the catalog server.

3) How do I configure for monthly nodes with retention for 15 years?
Proably creat a monthly node use a different tdpo.opt and dsm.opt but how would i set the reention for these node?

You'll probably want to work with your DBA on that. Hopefully someone can comment on archiving Oracle databases with TSM.

I am a new recruit to this setup and trying to fix the holes here.I have not worked on oracle before. Please help this newbie!

Good luck!

 

[GregE]

3) How do I configure for monthly nodes with retention for 15 years?

I think this should be handled at on the Oracle side in the RMAN script, using the KEEP option...
http://ss64.com/ora/rman_keepOption.html

 

[tsmdumber]

Thanks GUys for your Invaluable inputs!

From your suggestions I find that the oracle backups would never expire!! Thats really bad news as I have 500 TB worth of data for 2 nodes with oracle DB 100 Gb each.Which i guess is really way too much.

Is there anyway for me to delete unwanted old backups? I gues tdposync is out of the question here!!

Regards,
TSMDUMBER

 

[gimlet]

If you create a catalog server, you could use tdposync. Or you could create a new filespace, wait a certain number of days, and then blow away the old filespace. You'll end up back in the same boat eventually, though, without a catalog server.

 

[GregE]

Is there anyway for me to delete unwanted old backups?

Your RMAN script should contain:

DELETE EXPIRED BACKUP;
DELETE OBSOLETE;

Check with your DBA on implementing this.

 

[bcg365]

I've run into this before and you are correct - without a catalog, NOTHING in RMAN will actually cause TSM to dump the data, because nothing in RMAN can mark the backups as "inactive" - the connection to the API via RMAN does not provide the functionality needed. Data will remain "active" in TSM and hence not expire.

For servers that must use controlfile style backup meta data (whether by policy or other requirement) my suggestion is to ensure they all go to a separate tape storage pool eventually, and that all servers that backup to that pool have the same retention requirements (60 days, 90 days, 1 year, 10 years, whatever).

Then - set up a script that queries tapes in that pool, and based on last write date, determines their ages. Then delete (with data discard) any tape that is "older" than the retention time. Obviously - you don't ever run reclamation against this pool, but that isn't an issue since the data drops off automatically when it exceeds the key time.

It's ugly, but it works. Don't forget to docuemnt this well - cuz it's real easy in years to come to foget why this is the way it is, especially when you start migrating to newer hardware/software platforms.

Better choice I echo what you've seen above - use a catalog for RMAN with TDPOSYNC and don't store backup metadata in the control files.