PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance 5.15.0.0 Oracle RMAN User Guide

Data Guard protection modes

PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance provides the Data Guard protection in either stand-alone mode or federated mode:

• Stand-alone mode—Each Data Guard database is protected individually as an independent asset. Support for the stand-alone mode was introduced with PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance 19.12.

• Federated mode—Data Guard is considered an asset group that can use a protection strategy of either primary mode or standby mode. Support for the federated mode was introduced with PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance 19.13. Support for the federated mode with Oracle Incremental Merge operations was introduced with PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance 19.14.

  The PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance UI includes an asset group view that displays components and settings of each Data Guard asset group, including the protection strategy:

  • Primary mode—The backup is scheduled on the primary production database. During a failover, PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance automatically schedules the backup on the new primary database.
  • Standby mode—The backup is scheduled on the physical standby database, based on availability and the preference setting. If the asset group contains multiple standby databases, you can set a rank for each standby database, based on preference. The backup is scheduled on the highest ranked standby database. During a failover, PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance automatically schedules the backup on the next highest ranked standby database that is available.

PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance identifies the Data Guard role of each database during the asset discovery operation.

A Data Guard configuration with a logical standby database that will be involved in role switching is recommended for protecting Data Guard databases in stand-alone mode.

A snapshot database cannot be protected individually in stand-alone mode if the Data Guard configuration containing the snapshot is protected as an asset group.

For the preferred database in a primary or standby mode configuration, the archive log deletion is performed automatically. For the other databases in the primary or standby mode configuration, you must manage the archive log deletion.

Data Guard manual backups through Protect Now and Back Up Now options

For Data Guard assets protected as an asset group in federated mode, you can run a manual backup using the Protect Now option in the PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance UI. You can run the manual backup from the Protection > Protection Policies window to back up the assets that are protected in the designated protection policy. The manual backup uses the federated protection strategy of primary mode or standby mode.

From the Infrastructure > Assets window, you can run a similar manual backup of an asset group using the Back Up Now option. You can also select an individual asset for backup from the asset group that is protected by the federated strategy.

Best practices for Data Guard self-service backups

Review the following recommendations for self-service backups of a Data Guard database:

• Perform self-service backups of the Data Guard database without connecting to the recovery catalog. Synchronize the recovery catalog, if available, with the control file in separate RMAN sessions at regular intervals, outside of the backup sessions.
• When you use the primary mode, always perform the Data Guard backups from the primary database.
• When you use the standby mode, always perform the Data Guard backups from the same physical standby database.
• Perform non-full backups from the database where the latest full backup was performed.
• After a new database assumes the role of the preferred database for backups, perform the next backup of the database as a full backup.

Data Guard asset group views

In the PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance UI, you can view the Data Guard asset groups and assets by selecting the Oracle tab in the Infrastructure > Assets window or Restore > Assets window. On the top right of the window, you can click or to switch between the group view and list view:

• The group view displays the Data Guard asset groups. When you expand an asset group, you can view the database assets in the group. The Host Type column lists the asset groups as "Oracle Data Guard" and the assets as "Standalone". The Data Guard Role column lists the databases as Primary, Logical Standby, Physical Standby, or Snapshot Standby.
• The list view displays information on each individual database asset. The Host Type column lists the assets as "Standalone". The Data Guard Name column lists the Data Guard asset group name for each database. The Data Guard Role column lists the databases as Primary, Logical Standby, Physical Standby, or Snapshot Standby.

In the PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance UI, you can use the View Copies option to view all the backup copies for all the Data Guard assets in an asset group. You can select the Oracle tab in the Infrastructure > Assets window or Restore > Assets window, then select the asset group in the group view and select View Copies.

Considerations for Data Guard federated mode

In the PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance UI, you can configure the Data Guard federated mode setting for all assets in selected asset groups:

• In the Infrastructure > Assets window, you can click for the group view and select one or more asset groups. When you select an asset group that is not yet assigned a primary or standby mode, the group is assigned the primary mode by default.

  To change the mode of an asset group, perform one of the following actions:

  • Select More Actions > Set Protection Strategy, and select Primary Mode or Standby Mode in the dialog.
  • Click the tag next to the group name in the Assets window, and select the mode from the displayed list.

• In the Protection > Protection Policies window, you can add or edit a protection policy. On the Asset Groups page, you can select one or more asset groups. When you select an asset group that is not yet assigned a primary or standby mode, the group is assigned the primary mode by default.

  To change the mode of an asset group, perform one of the following actions:

  • Click Set Protection Strategy, and select Primary Mode or Standby Mode in the dialog.
  • Click the tag next to the group name on the Asset Groups page, and select the mode from the displayed list.

In the Set Protection Strategy dialog, when you select Standby Mode and the asset group includes multiple physical standby databases, the Select Priority Items page appears. On the page, you can set the backup ranking for each standby database, which determines the order in which the standby databases are backed up.

If one or more nodes in a Data Guard configuration are protected in stand-alone mode, you cannot select any nodes from the configuration and specify federated mode protection for the selected nodes. Similarly, if one or more nodes in a Data Guard configuration are protected in federated mode, you cannot specify the stand-alone mode for any nodes in the configuration.

When you configure Data Guard protection in federated mode, you can select either primary mode or standby mode, but not both.

Configuration of Data Guard logical standby database

As a configuration requirement for a Data Guard logical standby database, set the PRIMARY_DBNAME parameter in the [SID_<logical_standby_database_SID>] section of the Oracle RMAN agent configuration file.

In the configuration file $RMAN_AGENT_HOME/configure/rman_agent.cfg, set the PRIMARY_DBNAME parameter to the case-sensitive primary database name. You can obtain the primary database name from the output of a PL/SQL SELECT NAME FROM V$DATABASE query from the primary database.

For example:

• The primary database SID is dg01, and the primary database name is DG01.
• The logical standby database SID is dg01ls, and the logical standby database name is DG01LS.

• Add the following two lines in the Oracle RMAN agent configuration file on the host of the logical standby database:

  [SID_dg01ls]
       :
  PRIMARY_DBNAME=DG01

IBAC/RBAC for Data Guard assets

The IBAC/RBAC behavior remains unchanged in a Data Guard environment with PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance and Oracle RMAN agent. The resource group continues to be applied at the asset level. There is no resource group assignment at the Data Guard protection group level.

If Data Guard assets are protected as an asset group, it is recommended that you assign all the Data Guard assets (except the logical standby database) to the same resource group. If assets are added to a resource group from a protection policy, then all the individual Data Guard databases (except the logical standby database) will be added to the resource group for the Data Guard assets protected by an asset group in the selected policy.

Data Guard backup promotion

Data Guard backups are promoted in the following scenarios:

• A backup is promoted to the full level when the incarnation of the database is altered. This backup promotion applies to all types of Oracle databases, irrespective of whether the databases are protected individually or as an asset group.

• A backup is promoted to the full level for Data Guard assets that are protected as an asset group when a role switch occurs for the database that is currently involved in protection. For example:

  • The Data Guard database is protected in primary mode and a role switch occurs. The next backup is promoted to the full level and scheduled on the new primary database.
  • The Data Guard database is protected in standby mode and a role switch occurs on the physical standby database that performed latest backup. The next backup is promoted to the full level and scheduled on the new physical standby database, based on the rank setting during the creation of the protection policy.
• A backup is promoted to the full level for Data Guard assets that are protected in standby mode when the database or client that is currently involved in protection is unavailable.

Specify the following spfile parameters to enable the restore and synchronization of the Data Guard backups performed in primary mode or standby mode:

• audit_file_dest
• fal_client
• fal_server
• log_archive_config
• db_file_name_convert
• log_file_name_convert
• log_archive_dest_1
• log_archive_dest_2

When the Data Guard assets that are protected as an asset group, replication is tried for all the individual Data Guard assets except the logical standby database. Replication is skipped for assets that are not included in the backup.

When the Data Guard assets are protected as an asset group and you select any individual asset (except the logical standby database) on the Assets page or Asset Groups page:

• The backup is scheduled on the primary database node in the case of a primary mode backup.
• The backup is scheduled on the physical standby database node in the case of a standby mode backup, based on the rank setting during the creation of the protection policy.

The backup job displays the details about the asset from which the backup was performed. The backup type is not updated in the job details, even when the backup is promoted to the full level.

When two backup jobs are scheduled in quick succession and are both eligible for promotion, PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance promotes only one job and fails the other job.