PowerProtect Data Manager 19.17 Oracle RMAN User Guide

Oracle RMAN agent overview

The Oracle RMAN agent enables an application administrator to protect and recover the Oracle data on the application host. PowerProtect Data Manager integrates with the Oracle RMAN agent to check and monitor backup compliance against protection policies. PowerProtect Data Manager also enables central scheduling for backups.

Use PowerProtect Data Manager with the application agent to perform the following operations:

• Automate the configuration of the application agent backup policy and protection storage settings.
• Create a catalog of backups that the application agent creates. Then, monitor that catalog data to determine if retention policies are being adhered to.
• Manage the life cycle of backups that the application agent creates. Ensure that the backups are marked for garbage collection, based on the rules of the retention policy.

PowerProtect Data Manager does not change the way that the application agent works. DBAs, system administrators, or backup administrators create the backups and perform the restore operations.

The Oracle RMAN agent installation is a command-line process that installs the Oracle RMAN agent and PowerProtect Data Manager software and sets the DD host, storage unit, user, and password. Install and configure the Oracle RMAN agent provides instructions.

To enable the discovery and scheduling of backups with PowerProtect Data Manager, you must approve the client in the PowerProtect Data Manager UI. Manage the Oracle application agent provides more information.

The Oracle RMAN agent supports two protection technologies, Application Direct backups and Oracle Incremental Merge backups:

• Application Direct backups are traditional RMAN backups. The backups use the media management layer through the Oracle SBT library and stream-based interface to create the backup sets for an Oracle database backup. Application Direct backups support the following backup levels:

  • Full backup
  • Incremental cumulative backup
  • Incremental differential backup
  • Log backup

• Oracle Incremental Merge backups are image-based native datafile format backups on Linux only. The backups use Oracle image copy-based technology and file system calls to create the Oracle image backups as exact copies of datafiles. The Oracle image backups can be restored and brought online quickly. Oracle Incremental Merge backups support the following backup levels:

  • Full backup
  • Synthetic full backup
  • Log backup

  Oracle Incremental Merge protection with Oracle RMAN agent provides more details about Oracle Incremental Merge backup and restore operations.

The E-Lab Navigator provides software compatibility information for the PowerProtect Data Manager software and application agents.