Full system Backup using OmniBack

[Preeti Khanna]

Hi
I want to take full file System backup using omniback . what command i use in the Pre-exec and Post-exec ?
Also , which is the best backup using fbackup or omniback considering the amount of time and also performance over network using DLT Library.

How can i change the DLT in the DLT Library
when i am using fbackup , if the 1st DLT is full and it is asking for another DLT.

Thanks

[Manju Kampli]

1. If you are taking the full system backup using omniback, use the pre and post exec commands to shutdown the databases, and also to start the database when the backup finishes. Since this full system backup time is more, few may not prefer to shutdown the database for the whole time. instead they take full system backup excluding the database files and schedule another backup which takes the backup of database by shuting down the database.

2. Since omniback also uses fbackup internally to backup the files, the speed of backup may not vary between omniback and fbackup. But by using the omniback you will have more control over the data on the tapes and easy for administration.

3.You can change the dlt drives using "mc" command which comes with HP-UX or "uma" command which is supplied with omniback. see man pages of these two command for the detail options

[augusto cossa]

Hi,

By using OB you will be able to control you backup while it's running and as I know OB use RMAN and when the tape is full you will receive a message in your screen and so you will be able to change tape.

The pre and post are to stop and start the database and you must use it otherwise you will not be able to backup your data because it will says that the DB is in use.

Hope it's help.

Augusto

[Preeti Khanna]

Hi Manju,
Thanks a lot for valuable information , actually i am new to OmniBack.
Now i am able to take Full file system backup through OmniBack , it's quite user friendly to take backup through OmniBack but still i don't know the command to shutdown the Database . My server is running on 11.0 having SAP application on it and backend is Oracle .
Can you please provide me the Pre and post command for shutting down the database.

Also , I am getting some warning message while Backup it's saying
"/var
Directory is a mount point to a different file system
Backed up as empty directory ".
But again after some time i see the Noraml message stating that
"/var
Backup completed successfully ".

What does this means ?
Does it means that Backup is successfully completed ?

Thanks

[Kofi ARTHIABAH]

Hi Preeti:

You have to create a file called /opt/omni/pre_exec which is the script below:

#!/bin/sh
if [ -x /sbin/init.d/oracle ]
/sbin/init.d/oracle stop
echo "/sbin/init.d/oracle stop returned $? IGNORED"
echo "$0 complete"
fi
# *** IGNORE EXIT STATUS ***
exit 0

make sure that your oracle shutdown script is stored as /sbin/init.d/oracle.
If you want your post_exec to start up oracle again, then your /opt/omni/post_exec should have:

#!/bin/sh
if [ -x /sbin/init.d/oracle ]
/sbin/init.d/oracle start
echo "/sbin/init.d/oracle start returned $? IGNORED"
echo "$0 complete"
fi
# *** IGNORE EXIT STATUS ***
exit 0

Good luck

[Ramanand Agnihotram]

Hi there,
I see that u'r var question is unanswered!

1. Since /var is a mount point for the filesystem it is not backed up... it should be the same for any other mount points, instead they are backed up as empty directories.
2. Yes, that means backup is complete as the filesystem mounted at /var directory is backedup.

Hope that helps !
Ram

[melvyn burnard]

One thing to be aware of,if you only have an omniback backup of your system, and it crashes,i.e.you need to recover the system, you need omniback to recover, but the OB config info needs to be there to do this.
So you could end up in a catch-22 situation.

I would highly recommend having an easily recoverable version of the system discs, e.g.use make_recovery utility available with Ignite/UX

[Chuck Tremblay]

I noticed that you are running SAP on this system.

Check with your SAP BASIS administrators, but I'm reasonably sure they don't want you to shut down or restart Oracle directly if you have an SAP instance on the same server with Oracle. If this is the case, in the pre and post exec scripts you should use the 'stopsap' and 'startsap' commands respectively instead of the Oracle start and stop. SAP will stop and start the database as part of its' prcedures.

If there is no SAP instance on the database server, they may still want you to shut down SAP first (or at least the server with the Enqueue process). This would require that you do a 'remsh' in the pre and post execs to the SAP server(s)to issue the SAP commands before stopping and after restarting the database.

Failure to do this can result in lost data in the SAP system, as it has it's own data buffers which may not be reflected in the database when it is shutdown. It is usually best to treat SAP and it's database as a unit and not manipulate Oracle independently.
We had problems several times because we didn't follow this rule when we started out with SAP.

[Emilio Sierra]

You can use the script habitual of shutdown and starting SAP from OB as it follows:

it creates script to stop containing:
su - < sid>adm - c "stopsap"

creates other to start containing:
su - < sid>adm - c "startsap"

< sid > = to SID of your BD

Both script must be in /opt/omni/lbin

Emilio

[Miguel Angel Ortega]

Depending of the type of library you use, may be you can?t use 'uma'
In the case of an Storagetek ACS, you gotta modify the option InstallTerm
in your /etc/opt/omni/options/global file and use directly your acs-dlt server.
Also take a look at this file to know more options for Omniback.

[Alex Tsekhansky_1]

It will also depend on the OB version and what other software you have on the server. If you have a database (like Oracle), you may want to do a cold or hot backup of it and there are scripts you need to set that depend on the method.
If you have other apps, you may want to shut them down and start them back after the backup is done.

Re: tapes - if you have a tape library and configure robotics device correctly, OB will change a tape for you automatically (and I believe this is default).

If you have several writers in your library (several recorders), OB can split a job to record to both (or whatever number) devices at the same time.

If you provide more info on equipment, may be I can provide more details.