questions on various ways to backup business copy with Oracle

[ionic_tease]

Is it true that another way of backing up a Business Copy, you can export the BC volumes in VxVm on the host so the backup server can import then mount the BC volumes? I thought normally all you would do was create your SVOLs and pair it up to the PVOLs then sync the data, break the mirror and map the SVOL to the backup server to be mounted and backed up. With the first method of exporting/importing should the backup server be able to access the SAN(xp512)?

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

The best, most reliable, and probably fastest way to back up oracle is.

down the database.
Do a snapshot on the disk array.
bring up the db.
use business copy to copy the snapshot.

You can probably get away without the quick bounce of the database, but this makes it more difficult to use, epecially in a heavy write environment.

SEP

[ionic_tease]

Which method would you use to backup the snapshot? export/import the volumes or just map the SVOL volumes to the backup server? I confused on which method to use when backing up the BC copy.

[A. Clay Stephenson]

In the case of a downed database, simply backup the snapshots using your backup of choice. If the oracle database is stored as cooked files then backup as you would ordinary files; if the data are stored as raw data then the only UNIX standard utility to back those up and restore them is dd --- and I would never use dd as a production backup tool. Commercial backup programsd such as Data Protector or Netbackup can reliably backup cooked files and raw data. Of course there is always RMAN as well.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom and thanks for the point.

My answer is none of the above. At least exactly the above.

On the disk array, you can use the control station for the SAN to create your snaphots.

It is also possible, with the installation of certain utilities to script it on the HP-UX system.

The idea of breaking the mirror and backing up the copy and then re-integrating is worth a try as it would result in no down time. Question is, would the backup be restorable.

It is intrigueing the original method, exporting the BC volumes so another system can back them up. I can't see how the database can continue running under these circumstances. Seems that mirror breaking is the way to go.

SEP

[ionic_tease]

With Oracle, you can perform online (hot) backups of the database using RMAN. I'd been researching for the last couple of days and here's what I understand:

Method 1
a) Create BC pair (SVOL). Configure horcm on database and backup server.
b) Establish and sync PVOL and SVOL for baseline copy.
c) Put database in hot backup mode.
d) Sync PVOL and SVOL volumes.
e) Break mirror and export SVOL volumes to backup server.
f) Backup server imports the SVOL volumes, mount, then backup.
g) Unmount SVOLs and re-establish mirror.

Method 2
a) Create BC pair (SVOL). Configure horcm on database and backup server.
b) Establish and sync PVOL and SVOL for baseline copy.
c) Put database in hot backup mode.
d) Sync PVOL and SVOL volumes.
e) Break mirror.
f) Mount SVOL on backup server. Backup volumes.
g) Unmount SVOLs and re-establish mirror.

My confusion is why would method1 be more reliable then method 2?