PowerProtect Data Manager 19.12 Oracle RMAN User Guide

Add a protection policy for Oracle database protection

Use the PowerProtect Data Manager UI to add a protection policy to protect the Oracle databases.

1. From the left navigation pane, select Protection > Protection Policies.
   The Protection Policies window appears.
2. In the Protection Policies window, click Add.
   The Add Policy wizard appears.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.

7. 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.
   Add a service-level agreement provides instructions.
8. Complete the required steps for the specified type of protection policy group:

   • For Centralized Protection:

     1. Click Add under Primary Backup.

        The Add Primary Backup dialog appears.

     2. 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 name hostname unique 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.

          The retention lock mode setting comes from the configuration of the selected storage unit. When you enable retention locking, the Retention Lock Mode field displays the corresponding storage unit setting.

          Setting a retention lock 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.

          Add a service-level agreement provides instructions.

     3. On the Schedules pane of the Add Primary Backup dialog:

        1. 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.

             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.

        2. 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.

        3. Click Add Backup and repeat the procedure for creating full backups if you want to create additional backup copies at different intervals with different retention periods.

           Within this protection policy, when a full schedule conflicts with another full backup schedule, a message appears, indicating that there is a conflict. Schedule occurrences can conflict with each other when the activity windows are identical or occur entirely within the same time range. To avoid full schedule conflicts in a policy, edit the activity windows. If you proceed with conflicting schedules, the backup of the lower priority schedule will be skipped. Schedule priority is ranked according to the following criteria:

           • Full schedules have a higher priority than Synthetic Full schedules.
           • For schedules of the same backup type, the schedules that run less frequently have a higher priority than schedules that run more frequently.
           • For schedules with the same backup type and frequency, the schedule with the longest activity window has the higher priority. If the activity windows are also identical, only one of these schedules will run.
           NOTE When a schedule conflict between full backups occurs, PowerProtect Data Manager retains the full backup with the longest retention period.

     4. 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:

     1. Click Add under Primary Retention.

        The Add Primary Retention dialog appears.

     2. 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 name hostname unique 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.

          The retention lock mode setting comes from the configuration of the selected storage unit. When you enable retention locking, the Retention Lock Mode field displays the corresponding storage unit setting.

          Setting a retention lock 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.

          Add a service-level agreement provides instructions.

     3. 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.

        When a different retention time for all backup types is set, you can create additional full backup patterns with different retention times. For example, you can add a full backup pattern Retain full backups created every week on the Monday and Tuesday for 2 months.

     4. 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.

9. 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.

   When you create a replication objective, you can specify either scheduled replication or replication after backup completion.

   NOTE For replication after backup completion, PowerProtect Data Manager 19.12 or later and application agents 19.10 or later are required. It is recommended that you update the application agents to the latest version.

   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.

   1. Click Replicate next to Primary Backup or Primary Retention. An entry for Replicate is created to the right of the primary backup objective.
   2. Under Replicate, click Add.
      The Add Replication dialog appears, with information in the left pane for each schedule that has been added for the primary backup objective of this protection policy.

      NOTE Backups for all of the listed schedules will be replicated. You cannot select individual schedules for replication.
   3. 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.

        The retention lock mode setting comes from the configuration of the selected storage unit. When you enable retention locking, the Retention Lock Mode field displays the corresponding storage unit setting.

      • 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.

   4. Select when to replicate the backups:

      Replication triggers provides more information.

      • 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 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.

      By default, all replicas of the primary backup objective inherit the retention period from the Retain For value of the synthetic full and full backup schedules.

   5. To specify a different retention period for individual synthetic full and full replicas, clear Set the same retention time for all replicated copies, click Edit in the row of each schedule that you want to change, update the value in the Retain For field, and then click Save.
      CAUTION Setting a retention period for the replicas of other backup types (such as log backups, incremental, and differential backups, where applicable) that is shorter than the retention period of the corresponding full backup may result in being unable to recover from those replicas.
   6. Click Save to save your changes and return to the Objectives page.
10. Optionally, to move backups from protection storage to Cloud Tier, add a Cloud objective for the primary or replication 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.
    1. Click Cloud Tier next to Primary Backup or Primary 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 objective, or below the replication objective.
    2. 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 Tier objective for the primary objective or the replication objective.
    3. 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.
       Manage the cloud tier operations with PowerProtect Data Manager provides detailed instructions for adding a Cloud objective for a primary or replication objective.
11. Click Next.
    The Options page appears.
12. 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.

    • Recovery Catalog Option—Only for centralized protection in an Oracle Data Guard environment, select the appropriate option for resynchronizing the recovery catalog with a database:

      • None—By default, the None value is selected. Select this value when the recovery catalog does not need to be automatically resynchronized with backup copies. This option is applicable to a non-Data Guard environment.
      • Synchronous sync—Select this option to resynchronize the recovery catalog synchronously with backup copies after each backup.
      • Asynchronous sync—Select this option to resynchronize the recovery catalog asynchronously with backup copies after each backup.
      NOTE

      In the Data Guard environment, it is recommended that you use a recovery catalog to manage the RMAN metadata for all physical databases, including both primary and standby databases. RMAN uses the recovery catalog as the single source of truth for the Data Guard environment.

      RMAN only automatically resynchronizes the recovery catalog with a database when connected to this database as TARGET. RMAN does not automatically resynchronize every database in the Data Guard environment when connected as TARGET to one database in the environment.

    • 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.
13. Click Next.
    The Summary page appears.
14. 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.
15. 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 a backup fails, the backup job steps appear as canceled for the particular database. The backup job steps are displayed on the Step Log tab in the details section of the Job ID Summary window.

16. 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.
    • For a self-service protection policy, complete the procedure for the required top-level directory changes in Performing self-service backups of Oracle databases.