Oracle backup and restore

[Jiang Li_1]

Hi here,

I'm new to oracle, but I need do a backup job for one oracle 8i server here. The server is running HPUX11.0 OS. I have some ideas about exp/imp backup method and cold database backup. But I don't know how to recover the database server if the server need to be reinstalled. I do have a make_net_recover backup for vg00. But I found there are a lot of logical volumes in vg01 which are used by Oracle for raw devices.

I can't use other commercial backup tools for the backup at this stage. I have dump files created by exp command, I also have cold backup files created by the script which is easy to get from internet.

Can anybody here give me suggestions on how to restore the server after make_net_recovery ? I know how to recover OS but not sure how to recover Oracle and the database.

Thanks in advance.

[Chris Evans_5]

Hi there,

Once you have the operating system back you will need to recover or reinstall the oracle software.

When this is back you can recover from your cold backup tape.... do you know how to do this? if not what commands are you using to backup the database? (tar, cpio, fbackup???, once we know the commands used to do the backup we can let you know the commands to do the restore)

Do your cold backup tapes include the init file(s) for your database(s)? If not you will need to recreate these files.

Once the all the files are back you can then bring the database up in your normal way.

To recover from an export it is slightly more difficult. You will need to create the database structure first, ie datafiles and tablespaces. You can then use the imp command to import all of the data, using the full=y option.

Hope this helps you a little.
If you need anything clearing up then yell.

Chris

[Jiang Li_1]

Hi Chris,

Thank you very much for your prompt response !

I use a script on the webpage http://www.informit.com/isapi/product_id~%7B5595BE3C-AD4C-4F5E-8922-43AF3D17B744%7D/element_id~%7B5946EA3D-7970-4F68-87DD-BFB2685113DC%7D/st~%7BA119F4FC-560E-4B4E-9F88-C6E969331D73%7D/content/articlex.asp to do the cold backup job. It use 'cp' command for the backup.

I am not familar with the installation and setup of oracle. I just want to find a very simple way for me to do the backup & restore. This oracle server may be re-installed in the near future, after that, I need restore it to current stage. I can afford shutdown of oracle on this server whenever I want. Do I need care for the raw devices ? I don't know how important for these devices in oracle. After I restored OS, Do I need recovery vg01 volume configuration which contains a lot of raw devices on it ?

By the way, I am familar with HPUX. Thanks again !

[Chris Evans_5]

If you are using raw devices as your datafiles then you will not be able to back them up using this script.

If you are using normal filesystem datafiles then this script will just copy them to another directory, not to tape. How are you backing them up to tape?

You can back the oracle software up using any standard backup tool and recover it without any problems. We do it on oracle 8.1.7.4 and 9.2. The software does not like being recovered to a different host. So as long as you are recovering back to the same one you will be ok.

Chris

[Yogeeraj_1]

hi,

For Oracle Database, one simple way of recovery is by using RMAN.

If you have access to metalink, you will find tons of information over there.

if you need any further help, let us know.

regards
Yogeeraj

[Jiang Li_1]

Hi Chris,

Firstly, I use the script to backup files to hard disk, then I can use OmniBack software to backup them to tape. (I don't have license to backup oracle database)

How can I find if our oracle use datafiles on raw devices ? Thanks.

[Chris Evans_5 · Accepted solution]

OK :)

you can tell of you are using raw files by running the following SQL in SQL*Plus

select name from v$datafile;

if the file names that come up are in /dev/vg01/r.... format then you are probably using raw files. If they are in /filesytem/filename format then you are probably using datafiles (unless the datafiles are just symbolic links to raw files) Things are never easy... :)

[Jiang Li_1]

Hi Chris,

Do you mean the backup script will not help if we have datafile on raw device ? If this is case, How about RMAN utility ? Can it be used to backup datafile on both raw device and ordinary unix file system ?

Thank you !

[Michael Schulte zur Sur]

Hi,

with rman you connect to the database and it knows, where your data is, regardless whether on raw device or on file system and puts it where you configured it to do. A normal backup script would only backup file systems.

greetings,

Michael

[Chris Evans_5]

No, that script uses cp so it will not be able to deal with raw files.

You can use omniback directly to do the backup.

Create a backup specification containing all off the files in the database (raw files or file systems). Then bring the database down, run this backup and bring the database up afterwards.