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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