Add a protection policy for Oracle database protection
Use the
PowerProtect Data Manager UI to add a protection policy to protect the Oracle databases.
Prerequisites
When you create protection policies for RAC databases, ensure that all nodes in the RAC environment are powered on and registered at the time of the protection policy creation. Otherwise the protection might fail.
For Oracle Instance Group assets, ensure that the maximum length of the hostname plus storage unit is 59. There are no special character limitations. For example, oracle_database_department_123_accounts.
Before you perform a backup on a weekly or monthly schedule from the protection policy, ensure that the
PowerProtect Data Manager time zone is set to the local time zone. If the
PowerProtect Data Manager time zone is not set to the local time zone, the weekly or monthly backup still runs but is triggered based on the
PowerProtect Data Manager time zone.
If applicable, complete all of the virtual network configuration tasks before you assign any virtual networks to the protection policy. The
PowerProtect Data Manager Administration and User Guide provides more information.
Steps
From the left navigation pane, select
Protection > Protection Policies.
The
Protection Policies window appears.
In the
Protection Policies window, click
Add.
The
Add Policy wizard appears.
On the
Type page, specify the following fields, and then click
Next:
Name—Type a descriptive name for the protection policy.
Description—Type a description for the policy.
Type—Select
Oracle.
On the
Purpose page, select from the following options to indicate the purpose of the new protection policy group, and then click
Next:
Centralized Protection—Select this option to use
PowerProtect Data Manager to centrally manage all
objectives of the protection policy.
Centralized protection means that
PowerProtect Data Manager schedules the backups and manages the life cycle of the copies.
Click
Set Credentials to specify new credentials or select existing credentials from the list.
Authentication requirements provides details about the authentication requirements for an Oracle database.
NOTE Policy-level credentials are mandatory. Credentials that you set at the asset level and host level take precedence over the credentials that you set at the protection policy level. Asset-level credentials have the highest precedence.
Self-Service Protection—Select this option to use Oracle to create local backup protection.
PowerProtect Data Manager creates a protection policy and manages extra
objectives.
Self-service protection means that DBAs schedule the backups but
PowerProtect Data Manager discovers and manages the life cycle of the copies.
Exclusion—Select this type if there are assets within the protection policy that you plan to exclude from data protection operations.
On the
Assets page, select the unprotected assets that you want to add to the backup of this protection policy group. The window enables you to filter by asset name to locate the required assets.
You can also change the assets view to display all assets discovered by
PowerProtect Data Manager or a hierarchical view with the assets in a tree structure underneath the application host. For example, a hierarchical view might be helpful when you have added multiple Oracle databases, so that you can more easily identify which assets belong to which database.
Click
Next.
If you selected
Exclusion on the
Purpose page, the
Summary page appears. Proceed to
Step 15.
If you selected
Centralized Protection or
Self-Service Protection on the
Purpose page, the
Objectives page appears for creating the protection policy backup configuration.
On the
Objectives page, select a policy-level Service Level Agreement (SLA) from the
Set Policy Level SLA list, or select
Add to open the
Add Policy Service Level Agreement wizard and create a new policy-level SLA.
Complete the required steps for the specified type of protection policy group:
For
Centralized Protection:
Click
Add under
Primary Backup.
The
Add Primary Backup dialog appears.
On the
Target pane of the
Add Primary Backup dialog, specify the following fields:
Storage Name—Select a backup destination from the list of existing DD systems, or select
Add to add a system and complete the details in the
Storage Target dialog.
Storage Unit—Select whether this protection policy should use a
New storage unit on the selected DD system, or select an existing storage unit from the list. Hover over a storage unit to view the full name and statistics for available capacity and total capacity, for example,
testvmpolicy-ppdm-daily-123ab (300 GB/1 TB).
When you select
New, a new storage unit in the format
policy namehostnameunique identifier is created in the storage system upon policy completion, for example,
testvmpolicy-ppdm-daily-123cd.
NOTE The
Space field indicates the total amount of space, and the percentage of available space, on the storage system.
Network Interface—Select a network interface from the list, if applicable.
Retention Lock—Move the
Retention Lock slider to the right to enable retention locking for these backups on the selected system.
PowerProtect Data Manager uses Governance mode for retention locking, which means that the lock can be reverted at any time if necessary. Toggling the
Retention Lock slider on or off applies to the current backup copy only, and does not impact the retention lock setting for existing backup copies.
SLA—Select an existing service level agreement that you want to apply to this schedule from the list, or select
Add to create an SLA within the
Add Backup Service Level Agreement wizard.
On the
Schedules pane of the
Add Primary Backup dialog:
Specify the following fields to schedule the full backup of this protection policy:
Create a Full backup every—Specify how often to create a full backup.
Retain for—Specify the retention period for the full backup.
You can extend the retention period for the latest primary backup copy by using the
Extend Retention schedule. For example, your regular schedule for daily backups can use a retention period of 30 days, but you can apply extended retention to keep the full backups taken on Mondays for 10 weeks.
Extended retention provides information.
NOTE For database backups,
PowerProtect Data Manager chains the dependent backups together. For example, the incremental or transaction log backups are chained to their base full backup. The backups do not expire until the last backup in the chain expires. This ensures that all incremental and transaction log backups are recoverable until they have all expired.
Start and
End—The activity window. Specify a time of day to start the full backup, and a time of day after which backups cannot be started.
NOTE Any backups started before the
End Time occurs continue until completion.
Click
Add Backup if you want to add an incremental cumulative, incremental differential, or log backup, and then specify the following fields to schedule the backup of this protection policy:
NOTE When you select this option, the backup chain is reset.
Create a
<backup_type> backup every—For
<backup_type>, select
Incremental Cumulative,
Incremental Differential, or
Log from the drop-down list, and then specify the interval at which the backup job runs within the window that you specify. The backup interval depends on the backup interval of the full backup schedule:
If the full backup schedule is hourly or daily, the backup interval of subsequent backup levels can be between 1 and 12 hours or between 1 and 60 minutes.
If the full backup schedule is weekly or monthly, the backup interval of subsequent backup levels can be daily, between 1 and 12 hours, or between 1 and 60 minutes.
Retain for—Specify the retention period for the backup.
CAUTION If you set a shorter retention period for an incremental or log backup than for the corresponding full backup, then data loss might occur and you might be unable to recover the point-in-time copies.
Start and
End—The activity window. Specify a time of day to start the backup, and a time of day after which backups cannot be started.
NOTE Any backups started before the
End Time occurs continue until completion.
Click
Save to save the changes and return to the
Objectives page.
The
Objectives page updates to display the name and location of the target storage system under
Primary Backup.
After completing the
objective, you can change any details by clicking
Edit next to the
objective.
NOTE
When a new asset is added to an existing policy, you must run an ad hoc full backup for the newly added asset.
When a new asset is added to a protection policy during a scheduled backup window, the backup starts right away. However, if an asset is added to a protection policy outside of the scheduled backup window, the backup does not start until the next time that backups are configured to run.
If a new asset is added to a protection policy that has a weekly or monthly backup schedule and the current time is within the scheduled
Start and
End times, the backup runs right away, regardless of the date. If the current time is not within the scheduled
Start and
End times, the backup does not start until the next time that backups are configured to run.
For
Self-Service Protection:
Click
Add under
Primary Retention.
The
Add Primary Retention dialog appears.
On the
Target pane of the
Add Primary Retention dialog, specify the following fields:
Storage Name—Select a backup destination from the list of existing DD systems, or select
Add to add a system and complete the details in the
Storage Target dialog.
Storage Unit—Select whether this protection policy should use a
New storage unit on the selected DD system, or select an existing storage unit from the list. Hover over a storage unit to view the full name and statistics for available capacity and total capacity, for example,
testvmpolicy-ppdm-daily-123ab (300 GB/1 TB).
When you select
New, a new storage unit in the format
policy namehostnameunique identifier is created in the storage system upon policy completion, for example,
testvmpolicy-ppdm-daily-123cd.
NOTE The
Space field indicates the total amount of space, and the percentage of available space, on the storage system.
Network Interface—Select a network interface from the list, if applicable.
Retention Lock—Move the
Retention Lock slider to the right to enable retention locking for these backups on the selected system.
PowerProtect Data Manager uses Governance mode for retention locking, which means that the lock can be reverted at any time if necessary. Toggling the
Retention Lock slider on or off applies to the current backup copy only, and does not impact the retention lock setting for existing backup copies.
SLA—Select an existing service level agreement that you want to apply to this schedule from the list, or select
Add to create an SLA within the
Add Backup Service Level Agreement wizard.
On the
Retention (Self Service) pane of the
Add Primary Retention dialog, change any required retention times.
CAUTION If you set a shorter retention period for an incremental or log backup than for the corresponding full backup, then data loss might occur and you might be unable to recover the point-in-time copies.
By default, all backup types have the same retention time. To change the retention times for specific backup types, clear
Set the same retention time for all backup types and change the
Retain
<backup_type> For field values as required.
Click
Save to save the changes and return to the
Objectives page.
The
Objectives page updates to display the name and location of the target storage system under
Primary Retention.
After completing the
objective, you can change any details by clicking
Edit next to the
objective.
Optionally, extend the retention period for a primary backup or retention:
Extended retention provides more information about
Extend Retention functionality.
Click
Extend Retention next to
Primary Backup or
Primary Retention.
An entry for
Extend Retention is created below
Primary Backup or
Primary Retention.
Under
Extend Retention, click
Add.
The
Add Extended Retention dialog appears.
Extend the retention of a full primary backup copy every—Specify the preferred recurrence for the extended retention backup
objective.
Repeat on—Depending on the frequency of the full backup schedule, specify the day of the week, the date of the month, or the date of the year that the extended retention backup occurs.
Retain For—Specify the retention period for the backup. You can retain an extended retention backup for a maximum of 70 years.
Click
Save to save your changes and return to the
Objectives page.
Optionally, replicate the backups:
NOTE
To enable replication, ensure that you add remote
protection storage as the replication location. The
PowerProtect Data Manager Administration and User Guide provides detailed instructions about adding remote
protection storage.
When creating multiple replicas for the same protection policy, it is recommended to select a different storage system for each copy. If you select a storage unit that is the target of another
objective for the same policy, the UI issues a warning. The
PowerProtect Data Manager Administration and User Guide provides information about replicating to shared
protection storage to support
PowerProtect Cyber Recovery. Verify the storage targets and the use case before you continue.
Replication after backup completion is not available for self-service protection policies or for replication objectives that are based on extended retention.
For replicas of centralized backups, when you set retention periods for different backup types, any undefined types use the full backup retention period. For example, if you do not define a log backup in the primary
objective, the log backup for the replication
objective is also undefined. After you run a manual log backup, replicas of that log backup use the same retention period as the full backup.
Click
Replicate next to
Primary Backup,
Primary Retention, or
Extend Retention. An entry for
Replicate is created to the right of the primary or extended retention backup
objective.
NOTEPowerProtect Data Manager supports replicating an extended retention backup only if the primary backup already has one or more replication
objectives. Also, for replication of an extended retention backup, you can only select from the
protection storage systems to which the primary
objective replicates.
For example, if there are six
protection storage systems available (DD1-DD6), and the primary backup is on DD1:
Replicate1, which is based on the primary backup, replicates to DD2.
Replicate2, which is based on the primary backup, replicates to DD3.
Extended retention backup is backed up to DD1.
Replicate3, which is based on the extended retention backup, must replicate to DD2 or DD3.
Under
Replicate, click
Add.
The
Add Replication dialog appears.
Select a storage target:
Storage Name—Select a destination from the list of
protection storage. Or, select
Add to add a
protection storage system and complete the details in the
Storage Target window.
Storage Unit—Select an existing storage unit on the
protection storage system. Or, select
New to automatically create a storage unit.
Network Interface—Select a network interface from the list, if applicable.
Retention Lock—Move the
Retention Lock slider to the right to enable retention locking for these replicas.
SLA—Select an existing replication service level agreement that you want to apply to this schedule from the list. Or, select
Add to create a replication SLA within the
Add Service Level Agreement wizard.
The
PowerProtect Data Manager Administration and User Guide provides more information about replication targets, such as SLAs.
To replicate after the backup finishes, move the
Replicate immediately upon backup completion slider to on.
For scheduled replication, move the
Replicate immediately upon backup completion slider to off, and then complete the schedule details in the
Add Replication dialog.
For replication of the primary backup, the schedule frequency can be every day, week, month, or
x hours. For replication of the extended retention backup, the schedule frequency can be every day, week, month, year, or
x hours.
For daily, weekly, and monthly schedules, the numeric value cannot be modified. For hourly, however, you can edit the numeric value. For example, if you set
Create a Full backup every 4 hours, you can set a value of anywhere from 1 to 12 hours.
All replicas of the primary backup
objective use the same retention period and, by default, this retention period is inherited from the
Retain For value of the synthetic-full backup schedule.
To specify a different retention period for specific replicas, clear
Set the same retention time for all replicated copies, click
Edit, change the value in the
Retain For field, and then click
Save.
CAUTION Setting a shorter retention period for replicas of incremental, differential, or log backups than for the corresponding full backup may result in being unable to recover from those replicas.
This retention period is applied to all the replicated copies (synthetic full and full) of this primary backup
objective.
Click
Save to save your changes and return to the
Objectives page.
Optionally, to move backups from
protection storage to
Cloud Tier, add a Cloud
objective for the primary, replication, or extended retention
objective:
NOTE To move a backup or replica to
Cloud Tier,
objectives must have a retention time of 14 days or more.
PowerProtect Data Manager also requires the discovery of
protection storage with a configured Cloud unit.
Click
Cloud Tier next to
Primary Backup,
Primary Retention, or
Extend Retention. Or, if adding a Cloud
objective for a replication
objective that you have added, click
Cloud Tier under
Replicate.
An entry for
Cloud Tier is created to the right of the primary or extended retention
objective, or below the replication
objective.
Under the entry for
Cloud Tier, click
Add.
The
Add Cloud Tier Backup dialog appears, with summary information for the parent
objective to indicate whether you are adding this
Cloud Tierobjective for the primary
objective, the extended retention
objective, or the replication
objective.
Complete the
objective details in the
Add Cloud Tier Backup dialog, and then click
Save to save your changes and return to the
Objectives page.
On the
Options page, select the additional options that are required for the policy:
Archive Logs—Select the appropriate option for the deletion of archived logs:
Do not delete—Select this option to prevent the deletion of archived logs during backups. To delete the archived logs, the database administrator must run the delete command manually.
Delete immediately after backup—Select this option to enable the deletion of archived logs immediately after all the backup types that are performed through the protection policy.
Delete older than (days)—Select this option to enable the deletion of the available archived logs that are older than the specified number of days, for all the backup types that are performed through the protection policy. Set the number of days after which the archived logs are deleted.
Files Per Set—Specify the maximum number of files that RMAN can include in a backup set. The value must be an integer between 1 and 64, inclusive.
NOTE
As an alternative to setting the options
Files Per Set,
Maximum Open Files,
Block Size, and
Section Size on the
Options page, you can set the parameters
FILESPERSET,
MAXOPENFILES,
BLOCK_SIZE, and
SECTION_SIZE, respectively, in the configuration file
rman_agent.cfg.
Configuration file requirements for connection to local databases provides details about the configuration file.
The configuration file parameter settings take precedence over the option settings in the
PowerProtect Data Manager UI. These parameter and option settings apply only to centralized backups. The
Files Per Set and
Section Size settings apply only to full, incremental cumulative, and incremental differential backups—not to log backups.
Maximum Open Files—Specify the maximum number of input files that a backup or copy can have open at a given time. The value must be an integer greater than 0.
Block Size—Specify the number of KB of data that the Oracle database reads for the backup operation. The value must be a multiple of the minimum physical block size of the Oracle database. The value must be
<n>K, where
<n> is an integer between 1 and 1024 inclusive. K means kilobytes.
Section Size—Specify the size in KB, MB, or GB of each backup section in a multisection backup. In the backup set, each backup piece contains the blocks from one file section. The specified value must be
<n>K or
<n>M or
<n>G, where
<n> is an integer greater than 0. K means kilobytes, M means megabytes, and G means gigabytes.
If you specify a section size that is larger than the size of the file, then RMAN does not use a multisection backup for the file. If you specify a small section size that would produce more than 256 sections, then RMAN increases the section size to a value that results in exactly 256 sections.
Troubleshooting—Select this option to enable the debug logs for troubleshooting purposes.
Click
Next.
The
Summary page appears.
Review the protection policy group configuration details. You can click
Edit next to any completed window's details to change any information. When completed, click
Finish.
An informational message appears to confirm that
PowerProtect Data Manager has saved the protection policy. When the new protection policy group is created,
PowerProtect Data Manager automatically performs a full backup. Subsequent backups are performed according to the specified schedule.
Click
OK to exit the window, or click
Go to Jobs to open the
Jobs window to monitor the backup of the new protection policy group.
You can monitor and view detailed information in the
Jobs window for both centralized and self-service backups and restores of database application agents.
NOTE The
Cancel and
Retry options are not available for self-service jobs that are created by database application agents.
When
PowerProtect Data Manager and the client are updated from an older version and the target DD or storage unit of the Oracle database associated protection policy is changed:
If the objective of the protection policy includes replication, perform a replication from the
Protection Policies page. Select
Protection > Protection Policies > Protect Now and select
Replicate now, then change the primary target.